Bursa Malaysia retreats as US inflation weighs on global equities

KUALA LUMPUR: Bursa Malaysia is expected to react negatively to the sharp decline on Wall Street overnight following the release of higher-than-expected inflation data, which could decrease the number of rate cuts planned by the Federal Reserve for this year.

"After the adverse updates from Wall Street, we foresee the pessimistic sentiment will trickle down into the local stock market," said Apex Securities Research in a note.

The research firm said it expects a pullback on the FBM KLCI as investors lock in their recent gains while lower liners may also brace for some weakness after a decent run.

Meanwhile, Malacca Securities Research is more optimistic over the domestic outlook as it said buying support could remain in the near term due to several domestic catalysts.

"Local trading sentiment should stay positive with the trading catalysts revolving around the data centre theme as well as mega infrastructure projects and the soon-open-for-bidding LSS5.

"Key sectors to focus will be construction, property, utilities and renewable energy," it said in its review.

At 9am, the benchmark FBM KLCI was down 3.58 points to 1527.79 with bank stocks leading the decline.

Maybank dropped four sen to RM9.40, CIMB fell five sen to RM6.29 and Public Bank dipped one sen to RM4.39.

Genting, meanwhile, slipped two sen to RM4.88, while Genting Malaysia lost two sen to RM2.84.

Among actives, Bintai was unchanged at 7.5 sen, Widad down 0.5 sen to 12.5 sen and YNH Property up 0.5 sen to 68 sen.