KUALA LUMPUR (Dec 1): Bursa Malaysia opened lower on Friday, reversing Thursday's gains on profit-taking activities, despite the stronger performance on Wall Street overnight, a dealer said. 

At 9.06am, the FBM KLCI had fallen 2.24 points to 1,450.50, from Thursday’s close at 1,452.74.  The benchmark index opened 0.74 of a point lower at 1,452.0.

Market breadth was negative, with decliners leading gainers by 178 to 132, while 234 counters were unchanged, 1,778 untraded, and 27 others suspended.

Turnover stood at 177.45 million units worth RM80.73 million.

Malacca Securities Sdn Bhd noted that Wall Street ended the month with a solid performance on Thursday, in which three of the benchmark indices gained more than 8%, with cooling inflation data and the US personal consumption expenditures (PCE) coming in within expectations.

The PCE price index in October 2023, excluding food and energy prices, rose 0.2% for the month, and 3.5% on a year-on-year basis, both in line with expectations.

"We expect the technology sector to trade higher for the session (Friday), tracking the strong Wall Street performance.

"Meanwhile, from the final day of corporate earnings, we believe investors will reassess the quarterly results, and could position for window-dressing activities,” the brokerage firm said in a note on Friday.

Among the heavyweight stocks, Malayan Banking Bhd (Maybank) gained four sen to RM9.02, Public Bank Bhd at RM4.30 and IHH Healthcare Bhd at RM5.86 had risen three sen each, while CIMB Group Holdings Bhd added seven sen to RM5.72.

Tenaga Nasional Bhd shed six sen to RM9.93, and Petronas Chemicals Group Bhd slipped 14 sen to RM7.08. 

As for the most active counters, Zen Tech International Bhd at two sen, Meta Bright Group Bhd at 21 sen and KNM Group Bhd at 9.5 sen were all unchanged, while Dagang NeXchange Bhd eased half a sen to 39.5 sen, and ARB Bhd dropped one sen to 8.5 sen. 

On the index board, the FBM Emas Index was 19.74 points weaker at 10,707.66, the FBMT 100 Index shed 19.56 points to 10,376.99, while the FBM Emas Shariah Index trimmed 74.02 points to 10,855.34.

The FBM 70 Index shrank 41.89 points to 14,130.00, while the FBM ACE Index gained 25.58 points to 5,091.03.

Sector-wise, the Financial Services Index climbed 96.35 points to 16,318.31, while the Industrial Products and Services Index fell 0.93 of a point to 171.34, the Energy Index slid by 3.57 points to 825.53, and the Plantation Index was 47.92 points weaker at 6,993.49.