KUALA LUMPUR: Bursa Malaysia once again showed an uncertain start with a positive showing at the opening bell that quickly descended into the red.
The mood among investors in Asian markets were expected to pick up on Thursday as US officials extended another invitation to China to hold bilateral talks in an effort to resolve the current trade dispute.
Wall Street had picked up slightly overnight on news of the trade talks while Japan's Nikkei rose about 1% in early Thursday trade.
At 9.07am, the FBM KLCI was down 4.77 points to 1,780.41. Trading volume was 123.68 million shares valued at RM77.3mil. There were 165 decliners verusus 172 gainers and 200 counters unchanged.
Among actively traded stocks, MYEG rose five sen to RM1.55 on news that it had received a licence to conduct job recruitment activities.
Unisem put on 15 sen to RM3.12 as the its chairman and Chinese partners launched a takeover bid at RM 3.30 a share.
Magni-Tech was also up 10 sen to RM4.78 as its Q1 net profit showed growth and the board of directors declared a five sen dividend.
Other early gainers included Nestle, rising 10 sen to RM146.60, Westports adding eight sen to RM3.80 and Genting Malaysia rising seven sen to RM4.93.
On the losing end, Carlsberg dropped 56 sen to RM19.6, Public Bank fell 28 sen to RM24.64 and Top Glove slipped 12 sen to RM10.40.
Oil prices slipped on Thursday, although US crude remained above US$70 a barrel on the back of falling crude inventories and Brent was still close to US$80 because of looming sanctions against Iran, Reuters reported.
WTI crude futures were down 18 cents to US$70.19 per barrel while Brent crude futures dipped 11 cents to US$79.63 a barrel.
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