KUALA LUMPUR: Bursa Malaysia began on a dour note on Monday despite the rebound in the US market late last Friday as investors continued to digest the rate hikes plan put in place for the US Federal Reserve to mitigate the soaring inflation.
At 9.05am, the FBM KLCI was down 5.63 points to 1,451.11. The overall market was negative with 158 decliners to 95 gainers.
The country's benchmark index has lost over 7% since the end of May.
"On the chart, after breaking past the two preceding troughs (in early August 2021 and mid-December 2021) to fall under the rectangle pattern, the FBM KLCI has moved a step down to close at where it was in late May 2020.
"This could set the stage for the benchmark index to resume its negative momentum post an anticipated transitional relief rally first," said Kenanga Research in a report.
Decliners in early trade included Maybank falling 17 sen to RM8.71 following the previous week's rebound.
Kuala Lumpur Kepong dropping 38 sen to RM23.02, RHB shedding nine sen to RM5.79 and Hap Seng sliding 15 sen to RM7.30.
Tech stocks were also hammered with Hap Seng sliding 15 sen to RM7.30 and D&O erasing 13 sen to RM3.91.
Among actives, SFP Tech, which made its debut on the ACE Market, more than doubled from its reference price to 64 sen on heavy trading volume of 125.5 million shares.
Other active counters included MQTech down 0.5 sen to 3.5 sen and Hibiscus Petroleum falling four sen to RM1.04.
