KUALA LUMPUR: Bursa Malaysia was lower at today's opening, dragged down by selling pressure, especially in finance-related stocks.
At 9.10 am, the benchmark FTSE Bursa Malaysia KLCI (FBM KLCI) stood at 1,669.55, down 13.01 points from Monday's 1,686.11.
Bursa Malaysia was closed yesterday for the Deepavali celebration.
Losers led gainers 197 to 111, while 214 counters were unchanged, 1,281 counters untraded and 30 others suspended.
Turnover stood at 150.54 million shares worth RM69.88 million.
Maybank Investment Bank Research in its note today said foreign investors were net buyers of Malaysian equities in October, but selling on banks has been persistent.
"October was a period of relief for domestic equities, with net foreign inflows of RM0.6 billion, as opposed to persistent outflows since April this year.
"Much as we had hoped for a similar trend for the banking sector, this was not to be," it added.
According to Maybank Investment Bank Research, the aggregate foreign shareholding in banks had declined from 34 per cent end-June 2007 to 23.8 per cent aas of end-September 2015.
Maybank and CIMB lost six sen each to RM8.33 and RM4.61 respectively, while Public Bank gave up 24 sen to RM17.94.
On the scoreboards, the FBM Emas Index contracted 87.49 points to 11,658.68, the FBMT100 Index decreased 89.92 points to 11,328.43 and the FBM Emas Shariah Index depreciated 78.37 points to 12,543.86.
The FBM Ace declined 32.12 points to 6,476.49 and the FBM 70 fell 21.26 points to 13,020.20.
Sector-wise, the Finance Index gave up 130.16 points to 14,192.46, the Industrial Index eased 24.32 points to 3,296.53 and the Plantation Index was 24.49 points lower at 7,697.41.
Among heavyweights, TNB was flat at RM13.16, Axiata slid 12 sen to RM6.05 and IHH was nine sen weaker at RM6.50.
Among the actives, The Media Shoppe rose half-a-sen to 11 sen, while AirAsia X and Instacom edged down half-a-sen each to 20 sen and 20.5 sen respectively.
Source: http://english.astroawani.com/business-news/finance-related-stocks-drag-bursa-malaysia-lower-opening-80351
