KUALA LUMPUR: Bursa Malaysia retreated in the opening minutes of trade as investors took profit after four straight days of gains, while investors remains focused on the tabling of Budget 2023 this afternoon.
At 9.05am, the FBM KLCI was down 3.88 points to 1,416.55. The overall market was down with 152 decliners compared with 88 gainers.
Trading volume was 132.67 million shares valued at RM44.02mil.
There has been an global uptick of interest in equities following evidence that monetary tightening measures have showed signs of mitigating the soaring inflation.
However, investor anxiety over the upcoming US non-farms jobs payroll sent Wall Street lower yesterday for the second straight day.
On the local scene, Malacca Securities Research expects cautious trading ahead of the tabling of the Budget.
"Selected consumer, construction, solar related, and telecommunication stocks may be in focus ahead of the Budget 2023.
"Meanwhile, buying momentum is likely to sustain in the healthcare sector especially the glove counters given its improving outlook.
"Also, we opine that the energy sector should see further buying interest following the rise in crude oil price," it said in its daily outlook report.
Most stocks were seen descending on the blue-chip index, led by Hong Leong Bank falling 30 sne to RM30.50, Maybank down two sen to RM8.65, Axiata sliding two sen to RM2.70 and IOI slipping three sen to RM3.76.
Genting rose six sen to RM4.57 while Genting Malaysia was up two sen to RM2.80.
Inari meanwhile fell three sen to RM2.54, in line with the retreat in technology counters.
On the top traded list, Hibiscus Petroleum continued to push higher, adding two sen to RM1 while Top Glove rose two sen to 69.5 sen and Supermax added 0.5 sen to 78.5 sen.
