KUALA LUMPUR (April 5): Bursa Malaysia opened lower on Friday on profit-taking, tracking Wall Street’s negative overnight performance, said an analyst.

At 9.05am, the FTSE Bursa Malaysia KLCI (FBM KLCI) eased 3.60 points to 1,549.64 from Thursday’s close of 1,553.24.

The benchmark index opened 2.17 points lower at 1,551.07.

On the broader market, decliners led gainers 243 to 125, with 283 counters unchanged, 1,669 untraded and nine others suspended.

Turnover stood at 150.61 million units worth RM69.93 million.

Rakuten Trade Sdn Bhd equity research vice-president Thong Pak Leng said Wall Street traders decided to lock in profits, underscoring concerns of overvaluation in US equities after a series of unprecedented record-breaking rallies earlier this year.

He added that traders are waiting for the March US job data to be released later on Friday.

“We hope the overnight sell-down on Wall Street will instigate more rebalancing of portfolios and divert the flows back into the Asian region.

“Nonetheless, we believe overall sentiment may be negatively affected, thus we expect trading to turn cautious and the index to hover within the 1,550-1,560 range today,” Thong told Bernama.

Among the heavyweights, Press Metal Aluminium Holdings Bhd shed seven sen to RM5.05, YTL Corp Bhd fell three sen to RM2.63, Maxis Bhd was down by three sen to RM3.43, YTL Power International Bhd slipped three sen to RM3.99, Tenaga Nasional Bhd declined eight sen to RM11.42 and CIMB Group Holdings Bhd trimmed four sen to RM6.61.

Meanwhile, Axiata Group Bhd rose three sen to RM2.64, and IHH Healthcare Bhd climbed three sen to RM6.08, while Sime Darby Bhd added two sen to RM2.76, and Petronas Chemicals Group Bhd was two sen higher at RM6.77.

As for the most active stocks, Tanco Holdings Bhd eased half-a-sen to 86 sen, Ingenieur Gudang Bhd added half-a-sen to 14.5 sen, Velesto Energy Bhd was flat at 30.5 sen, and Bumi Armada Bhd rose one sen to 61 sen.

On the index board, the FBM Emas Index reduced 22.78 points to 11,666.18, the FBMT 100 Index depreciated 21.66 points to 11,300.53, and the FBM Emas Shariah Index dipped 18.76 points to 11,803.31.

The FBM 70 Index decreased 12.36 points to 16,288.08, and the FBM ACE Index fell eight points to 4,988.55.

Sector-wise, the Financial Services Index gave up 40.25 points to 17,255.52, the Plantation Index slid 9.59 points to 7,396.90, and the Industrial Products and Services Index was down by 0.39 of-a-point to 182.73, while the Energy Index put on 4.34 points to 985.07.