KL shares lower in early trade

Share prices on Bursa Malaysia opened broadly lower in thin trade today following the overnight slump on Wall Street as well as the absence of fresh leads on the local front, said analysts.

After 20 minutes of trading, the benchmark FTSE Bursa Malaysia KLCI (FBM KLCI) lost 5.19 points to 1,583.39 after opening 0.89 of a point lower at 1,587.69.

"Investors' sentiment in Wall Street was hammered by worries that the euro zone debt woes would spread to Italy, triggering demand for safer assets," said an analyst.

The Dow Jones Industrial Average closed 151.44 points lower at 12,505.76, the S&P 500 index declined 24.31 points to 1,319.49 and the Nasdaq dropped 57.19 points to 2,802.62.

HwangDBS Vickers Research Sdn Bhd, in a research note today, expected the local bourse to slip towards the immediate support mark of 1,575.

"This comes after the benchmark FBM KLCI surrendered all its initial gains of seven points to end little changed yesterday," it added.

The Finance Index declined 44 points to 14,936.04, the Plantation Index fell 13.15 points to 7,896.82 and the Industrial Index decreased 13.52 points to 2,865.69.

The FTSE Bursa Malaysia Emas Index decreased 26.42 points to 10,868.96, the FTSE Bursa Malaysia Mid 70 Index eased 2.2 points to 11,845.51 and the FTSE Bursa Malaysia Ace Index erased 9.71 points to 4,154.21.

Market breadth was negative with losers leading gainers 136 to 67 while 140 other counters were unchanged.

Trading volume stood at 50.121 million shares valued at RM58.24 million. Actives, Kencana Petroleum rose 12 sen to RM2.92, Kencana-CF (OSK) added 3.5 sen to 80 sen and Hubline was flat at 11.5 sen.

Heavyweights, Maybank lost eight sen to RM8.90, CIMB rose one sen to RM8.83 and Petronas Chemicals dropped two sen to RM7.08. -- Bernama