Rakuten Trade Sdn Bhd equity research vice-president Thong Pak Leng said this consequently pushed the US 10-year yield higher to 4.697% and that the US Federal Reserve may need to hike rates next month.
He said the Dow Jones Industrial Average declined 0.51% overnight while the Nasdaq Composite dipped 0.63%.
“In Hong Kong, the Hang Seng Index surged 345 points underpinned by the emergence of Central Huijin which is part of China’s Sovereign wealth fund, mopping up shares of several banks, namely ICBC, Construction Bank, Bank of China and Agriculture Bank,” he told Bernama.
Back home, he said as investors await the tabling of Budget 2024 later today, he remained quite optimistic that there may be some pleasant surprises in store.
“Nonetheless, we expect the benchmark index to hover within the 1,440-1,450 range today.
“Again, we advocate investors to focus on value stocks like banks and telecommunications plus sectors like construction, industrial products and property as dark horses,” he added.
At 9.10am, the FTSE Bursa Malaysia KLCI (FBM KLCI) eased 2.64 points to 1,441.18 from yesterday’s closing of 1,443.82.
The index opened 0.45 points of-a-point lower at 1,443.37.
On the broader market, decliners outpaced gainers 165 to 139, while 248 counters were unchanged, 1,803 untraded and 25 suspended.
Turnover stood at 183.01 million units worth RM77.05 million.
Among the heavyweights, Petronas Chemicals rose 1 sen to RM7.28, Maybank and Public Bank lost 3 sen to RM8.96 and RM4.15 respectively, CIMB slid 4 sen to RM5.62, while Tenaga Nasional was flat at RM10.00.
Of the actives, Widad edged up 0.5 sen to 55 sen, Tanco and Malaysian Resources Corporation eased 0.5 sen each to 56 sen and 48.5 sen, respectively, while KNM Group and Sapura Energy were flat at 12 sen and 5 sen respectively.
On the index board, the FBM Emas Index shed 14.82 points to 10,681.49, the FBMT 100 Index gave up 14.53 points to 10,343.00, the FBM Emas Shariah Index decreased 4.06 points to 10,916.71, the FBM 70 Index inched down 0.69 of-a-point to 14,226.19, while the FBM ACE Index perked up 3.73 points to 5,181.5.
Sector-wise, the financial services index slid 28.71 points to 16,249.81, the industrial products and services index fell 0.05 of-a-point to 173.99, the energy index was 2.23 points lower at 873.22, while the plantation index advanced 2.17 points to 6,848.94.