Bursa Malaysia opens higher but reverses early gains amid cautious sentiment

KUALA LUMPUR: Bursa Malaysia's key index opened higher but retreated thereafter, tracking cautious sentiment across regional markets amid mixed overnight cues from Wall Street.

At 9.10am, the FTSE Bursa Malaysia KLCI (FBM KLCI) decreased 3.13 points to 1,618.72 from yesterday's close of 1,621.85.

The benchmark index opened 1.46 points higher at 1,623.31.

In the broader market, losers led gainers 160 to 122, while 273 counters were unchanged, 2,206 untraded, and 10 suspended.

Turnover stood at 138.01 million units worth RM56.89 million.

Rakuten Trade Sdn Bhd vice-president of equity research Thong Pak Leng said Wall Street ended mixed, with market attention focused on the US midterm elections, amid expectations of a potential sell-off in artificial intelligence (AI) stocks should the Democrats gain control of both the House of Representatives and the Senate.

Regionally, sentiment was buoyed by China's commitment to expand yuan liquidity in Hong Kong, alongside better-than-expected third-quarter 2026 gross domestic product growth, he said.

"On the home front, the FBM KLCI was up slightly to above the 1,620 level yesterday as stock accumulation from foreign funds continues.

"Though overall trading was rather muted, it is heartening to see the net inflow of foreign funds of late. Thus, for today, we anticipate the index to trend within a narrow range of 1,615-1,625," he told Bernama.

Among the heavyweight stocks, Maybank and CIMB fell five sen each to RM9.99 and RM6.93, respectively. Public Bank was flat at RM4.81, while Tenaga Nasional increased two sen to RM13.18 and IHH Healthcare added one sen to RM7.77.

In active trade, Aizo rose one sen to eight sen, Dagang Nexchange, Bina Puri and Zetrix AI inched up half a sen each to 41 sen, 22 sen and 6.5 sen, respectively. NWE Resources was flat at 20 sen.

MISC led the top gainers, gaining 12 sen to RM8.47, while KLCC rose eight sen to RM8.38, Malayan Cement bagged six sen to RM5.36, while Pentamaster and Master Tec improved five sen each to RM5.32 and RM1.10, respectively.

Among the top losers, United Plantations decreased 20 sen to RM29.68, Hong Leong Bank dropped 18 sen to RM21.16, and Telekom Malaysia fell nine sen to RM7.81. Westports and Sunway Construction lost eight sen each to RM7.19 and RM7.64, respectively.

On the index board, the FBM Emas Index decreased 20.0 points to 12,048.32, while the FBM Top 100 Index trimmed 20.72 points to 11,859.13.

The FBM Mid 70 Index sank 20.86 points to 17,298.04, the FBM Emas Shariah Index was 14.09 points lower at 12,030.82, and the FBM ACE Index gave up 0.82 points to 5,318.22.

Sector-wise, the Industrial Products and Services Index edged up 0.07 points to 177.65, the Energy Index inched up 0.76 points to 827.76, the Financial Services Index narrowed 68.69 points to 18,648.21, and the Plantation Index lost 6.21 points to 8,763.44.