KUALA LUMPUR (Feb 10): Bursa Malaysia was mixed in early trade on Friday (Feb 10), as cautious sentiments prevailed following Wall Street’s decline overnight, a dealer said. 

At 9.15am, the benchmark FBM KLCI had risen by 2.79 points to 1,467.43, from Thursday's close at 1,464.64. 

The key index opened 0.41 point better at 1,465.05.

However, market breadth was negative, with losers surpassing gainers 217 to 140, while 285 counters were unchanged, 1,532 untraded, and 18 others suspended.

Turnover amounted to 366.80 million units worth RM150.08 million.

Rakuten Trade Sdn Bhd vice-president of equity research Thong Pak Leng said Wall Street ended lower on Thursday, as concerns emerged over the US Federal Reserve’s rate adjustments, which may be higher than expected. 

He said the Dow Jones Industrial Average declined 249 points, and the Nasdaq lost 121 points, while the US Treasury 10-year yield was higher at 3.66%.

“Back home, selling of blue chips persisted, particularly for telecommunications and energy-related stocks. 

“The benchmark index declined, as sentiment remained jittery due to unrelenting selling by foreign funds, as the highly anticipated bargain-hunting did not materialise," he told Bernama. 

Thong reckoned that the market could be waiting for the retabling of Budget 2023 on Feb 24, thus he expects the index to continue to trend within a narrow range of 1,460-1,470 on Friday.

Meanwhile, Bursa heavyweights Malayan Banking Bhd (Maybank) gained four sen to RM8.66 per share, Public Bank Bhd added three sen to RM4.16, CIMB Group Holdings Bhd widened five sen to RM5.42, and Tenaga Nasional Bhd improved two sen to RM9.55, while Petronas Chemicals Group Bhd reduced five sen to RM8.19. 

As for the actives, Sapura Energy Bhd at five sen, MyEG Services Bhd at 72 sen and Velesto Energy Bhd at 22.5 sen were up by half a sen each.

YGL Convergence Bhd also ticked up 3.5 sen to 22 sen, while PT Resources Holdings Bhd gained two sen to 66 sen. 

On the index board, the FBM Emas Index bagged 16.35 points to 10,711.35, the FBMT 100 Index earned 17.13 points to 10,376.65, and the FBM 70 Index garnered 11.52 points to 13,624.45.

However, the FBM Emas Shariah Index lost 9.38 points to 11,037.14, and the FBM ACE Index was 35.58 points lower at 5,776.89. 

Sector-wise, the Plantation Index perked 8.96 points to 6,887.75 and the Financial Services Index increased 87.97 points to 16,003.18, while the Industrial Products and Services Index lessened 0.49 of a point to 189.84, and the Energy Index lost 0.21 of a point to 884.67.