KUALA LUMPUR (March 5): Bursa Malaysia retreated from its gains on Monday to open lower on Tuesday morning after a negative Wall Street performance overnight.

At 9.10am, the FTSE Bursa Malaysia KLCI (FBM KLCI) slid 8.16 points to 1,531.11 from Monday's close of 1,539.27. The benchmark index opened 1.35 points lower at 1,537.92.

On the broader market, the sentiment was negative with decliners surpassing gainers 222 versus 139, while 265 counters were unchanged, 1,625 untraded and 13 others suspended.

Turnover amounted to 244.01 million units worth RM134.71 million.

Rakuten Trade Sdn Bhd equity research vice-president Thong Pak Leng said Wall Street retreated as traders took a breather after a record-breaking run fuelled by the artificial intelligence frenzy.

"Besides, [the focus has] shifted to the US Federal Reserve updates [as they try to] gauge the outlook for interest rates," he told Bernama.

At home, Thong noted that the market undertone has turned cautious with investors looking for fresh leads. "Hence we expect the index to hover within the 1,545-1,555 range today as daily volume has shrunk to the three billion shares level," he said.

Among the heavyweight counters, Malayan Banking Bhd declined four sen to RM9.56, CIMB Group Holdings Bhd dropped six sen to RM6.39, Public Bank Bhd was two sen lower at RM4.29, Tenaga Nasional Bhd fell four sen to RM11.06 and Petronas Chemicals Group Bhd slid three sen to RM6.85.

Among the actives, Velesto Energy Bhd shed half-a-sen to 28.5 sen and Sapura Energy Bhd was half-a-sen lower at 4.5 sen, while Harvest Miracle Capital Bhd was flat at 14 sen, Ekovest Bhd gained 1.5 sen to 46.5 sen and Iskandar Waterfront City Bhd added 4.5 sen to 78 sen.

On the index board, the FBM Emas Index was 51.90 points lower at 11,365.19, the FBMT 100 Index shed 54.35 points to 11,029.96 and the FBM ACE Index eased 3.6 points to 4,746.76.

The FBM Emas Shariah Index lost 48.48 points to 11,395.01 and the FBM 70 Index shed 57.22 points to 15,342.9.

Sector-wise, the Financial Services Index eased 84.68 points to 17,168.85, the Plantation Index was down by 48.42 points to 7,247.68 and the Energy Index shrank by 5.36 points to 908.4.

The Industrial Products and Services Index shaved off 0.69 of a point to 175.