KL shares open broadly lower

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

At 9.15am, the FTSE Bursa Malaysia Kuala Lumpur Composite Index (FBM KLCI) shed 6.84 points to 1,059.52 after opening 6.03 points lower at 1,060.33."Investors' sentiment in Wall Street was hammered by the slumping crude oil price that dragged the stock prices lower," said MIMB Investment in its research note.

Investors have been worried that the global economic recovery may take longer than expected and this may inevitably dent demand for crude oil.Investors became more cautious when US President Barrack Obama's economic adviser Laura Tyson said a second round of stimulus might be needed to boost the the country's economy, said MIMB Investment said.

The Plantation Index was down 17.59 points at 5,311.43, the Industrial Index slipped 11.44 points to 2,360.46, the Finance Index shed 23.72 points to 8,494.26 and the FBMEmas Index dropped 40.47 points to 7,131.78.

The FBM Top 100 inched down 40.93 points to 6,947.46, the FBM70 slipped 25.82 points to 7,035.35, the FBMMesdaq Index fell 1.36 points to 3,886.62 and the FBM2BRD Index was 3.58 points lower at 4,669.51.

Losers led gainers by 136 to 24 while 67 counters were unchanged, 1,005 untraded and 34 others suspended.Volume stood at 40.186 million shares valued at RM29.016 million.Among the actives, Compugates and Talam Corp were flat at seven sen and 8.5 sen respectively, KNM Group shed two sen to 74 sen and Mobif added half a sen to nine sen.Of the heavyweights, Sime Darby fell 10 sen to RM7.15 while Maybank, Public Bank and MISC were all flat at RM5.65, RM9.20 and RM8.50 respectively. Tenaga Nasional and Bumiputra-Commerce shed five sen each to RM7.65 and RM9.20 respectively. - Bernama