KUALA LUMPUR (April 12): Bursa Malaysia opened lower on Friday, due to a lack of participants in the market, with traders taking an extended Hari Raya break after Wednesday and Thursday, said an analyst.

At 9.18am, the FBM KLCI had declined 3.56 points to 1,549.95, from Tuesday's close at 1,553.51. The benchmark index opened 0.58 point higher at 1,554.09.

On the broader market, decliners led gainers 249 to 237, while 369 counters were unchanged, 1,488 untraded, and 11 others suspended.

Turnover amounted to 365.68 million units worth RM201.25 million.

Rakuten Trade Sdn Bhd equity research vice-president Thong Pak Leng said the KLCI slid to below the 1,555 level after testing a year-to-date high on Tuesday.

"We believe this could be attributed to the shortened trading days this week for the Hari Raya festivities.

"Today (Friday), we anticipate some bargain-hunting activities to emerge, thus we expect the index to hover within the 1,550-1,560 range," he told Bernama.

He said Wall Street rebounded on Thursday, spurred by the lower-than-expected producer price index for March, as traders turned buyers following higher-than-expected consumer price index data a day earlier.

"Despite the flattish Dow Jones Industrial Average, the Nasdaq jumped by 272 points to another record high, led by the bulk of the Magnificent Seven (Apple, Microsoft, Alphabet, Amazon, Nvidia, Meta and Tesla), as the US 10-year yield edged up to almost a five-month high at 5.584%,” he said.

Among local heavyweight counters on Friday, Malayan Banking Bhd (Maybank) at RM9.63 and Public Bank Bhd at RM4.19 were both flat, CIMB Group Holdings Bhd decreased by nine sen to RM6.48, Tenaga Nasional Bhd dropped two sen to RM11.64, and Petronas Chemicals Group Bhd fell three sen to RM6.74.

Among the actives, Harvest Miracle Capital Bhd gained 1.5 sen to 13 sen, Iconic Worldwide Bhd increased by half a sen to 10.5 sen, SBH Marine Holdings Bhd went up by two sen to 30 sen, RGB International Bhd advanced by one sen to 37 sen, while Hong Seng Consolidated Bhd stayed unchanged at one sen.

On the index board, the FBM Emas Index dropped by 22.80 points to 11,678.30, the FBMT 100 Index decreased by 24.40 points to 11,311.00, and the FBM Emas Shariah Index went down by 11.30 points to 11,853.80, and the FBM 70 Index saw a decrease of 28.80 points to 16,336.90.

Meanwhile, the FBM ACE Index advanced by 17.25 points to 5,028.41.

Sector-wise, the Financial Services Index fell by 52.10 points to 17,191.30, and the Energy Index went down by 2.16 points to 968.73. 

The Industrial Products and Services Index increased by 0.15 of a point to 183.96, and the Plantation Index went up by 2.20 points to 7,481.02.

Bursa and its subsidiaries were closed on Wednesday and Thursday, in conjunction with the Raya holidays.