Bursa Malaysia opened lower this morning in the absence of market moving factors and against a backdrop of sliding crude oil prices, a dealer said.

At 9.04am, the benchmark FTSE Bursa Malaysia KLCI (FBM KLCI) was 1.09 points easier at 1,628.13 against Tuesday's close of 1,629.22 points.

Losers outpacing gainers 137 to 111 with 148 counters unchanged, 1,355 untraded and 12 others were suspended.

Turnover amounted to 104.93 million shares worth RM40.99 million.

US crude futures gave up another 49 cents to US$27.97 per barrel while Brent crude was quoted at US$28.76 a barrel.

AllianceDBS Research, in its evening edition yesterday, said the FBM KLCI would likely trade above the 1,632.60 points level today.

Leading the top losers list this morning was Shangri-La, which fell 19 sen to RM5.61, both KLK and Genting Plantations dropped 14 sen each to RM1.44 and RM10.16, respectively, and Petronas Chemicals decreased nine sen to RM7.10.

Heavyweights, Maybank gave up three sen to RM8.30, TNB lost eight sen to RM12.82, Axiata gained two sen to RM6.15 while Public Bank was unchanged at RM18.18.

Among actives, IFCA MSC decreased 1.5 sen to 80 sen and Sumated Resources eased half-a-sen to 11 sen while Nexgram, Metronic and The Media Shoppe remained unchanged at 6.5 sen, 7.0 sen and 8.5 sen, respectively.

On the scoreboard, the FBM Emas Index was 10.35 points lower at 11,470.25, the FBMT100 Index decreased 10.1 points to 11,085.17 and the FBM Emas Shariah Index slipped 14.01 points to 12,355.99.

The FBM Ace improved 1.30 points to 6,186.07 and the FBM 70 was 21.27 points lower at 12,877.09.

On a sectoral basis, the Finance Index gave up 5.81 points to 13,677.77, the Plantation Index reduced 20.04 points to 7,499.25 and the Industrial Index perked 13.52 points to 3,150.02.

- Bernama