Bursa Malaysia Opens Lower as Wall Street Slumps on Hawkish Fed Stance

KUALA LUMPUR, Sept 24 – Bursa Malaysia opened lower on Thursday, tracking overnight losses on Wall Street amid rising US Treasury yields and cautious sentiment following hawkish comments from US Federal Reserve officials.

At 9:10 AM, the benchmark FTSE Bursa Malaysia KLCI (FBM KLCI) dropped 2.59 points, or 0.15 percent, to 1,673.84, compared to Wednesday’s close of 1,676.43.

The index opened 1.98 points lower at 1,674.45.

Market breadth was negative as decliners outpaced gainers 259 to 134, while 269 counters remained unchanged, 2,239 untraded, and 27 suspended.

Total trading volume stood at 259.94 million shares valued at RM101.64 million.

Among key heavyweights, Maybank traded unchanged at RM10.14, while Public Bank slipped three sen to RM4.80, and CIMB shed two sen to RM7.91. Bucking the downward trend, Tenaga Nasional added two sen to RM13.16, and IHH Healthcare rose 14 sen to RM8.14.

In active trading, Zetrix AI lost 1.5 sen to 17 sen, while Aimax edged up half a sen to 1.5 sen. Computer Forms gained one sen to 10 sen, whereas GIIB and Velesto Energy remained flat at 59 sen and 23 sen, respectively.

Top early gainers included Hengyuan Refining, which rose 17 sen to RM4.64, alongside Petronas Chemicals and MNRB, which both gained 12 sen to RM4.61 and RM2.95, respectively. Sarawak Oil Palms advanced 10 sen to RM5.95, while Petron climbed eight sen to RM3.80.

Conversely, top early decliners were led by Nestle, which fell 46 sen to RM89.04, Kuala Lumpur Kepong, down 20 sen to RM22.30, and Malaysian Pacific Industries, which shed 14 sen to RM44.44. MI Technovation slid 11 sen to RM6.02, while Petronas Dagangan dropped 10 sen to RM19.90.

On the broader index front, the FBM Mid 70 Index declined 61.14 points to 17,772.66, the FBM Emas Index dropped 23.92 points to 12,453.43, the FBM Top 100 Index fell 24.86 points to 12,242.73, the FBM Emas Shariah Index lost 13.02 points to 12,307.20, and the FBM ACE Index slipped 27.60 points to 5,399.81.

Sector-wise, the Industrial Products and Services Index rose 0.23 of a point to 185.18, while the Energy Index dipped 0.49 of a point to 849.96. The Financial Services Index contracted 45.13 points to 19,532.64, and the Plantation Index lost 7.77 points to 9,402.03.

–NMT