KUALA LUMPUR: Malaysia's benchmark index opened under the 1,500 psychological level on Monday following the US's shock attack on Iran over the weekend that has escalated the geopolitical fever while threatening to dirupt Middle East oil supply.
The FBM KLCI fell 9.55 points to 1,493.19 at the starting bell, with investors caught off guard by the US missile attack on Iran's nuclear sites given US President Donald Trump's earlier comments about a two-week timeframe.
Malacca Securities Research said the heightened geopolitical tension may spur interest in gold and oil and gas-related counters.
"Despite the ongoing tension, we remain positive on the construction and utility sectors, with the former benefits from public infrastructure developments and data centre investments across the country, while the latter is supported by Tenaga Nasional's power grid upgrades and the country’s renewable energy shift under the NETR masterplan.
"Thus, we favour counters like Gamuda, IJM, Inta Bina, MN Holdings, Southern Cable Group, and Solarvest," it sad in a note.
Oil-related stocks on Bursa Malaysia were lifted by a 3% surge in oil prices yesterday to a five-month high.
Petron Malaysia
climbed 19 sen to RM3.92, Henyuan Refining jumped nine sen to RM1.94, Hibiscus Petroleum gained eight sen to RM1.79 and Dialog rose five sen to RM1.59.
Leading actives were Hubline down 0.5 sen to four sen, MYEG falling one sen to 89.5 sen and Mui Industries dropping 0.5 sen to five sen.
