KUALA LUMPUR: Share prices on Bursa Malaysia opened lower today, tracking the performance of regional peers and Wall Street over China's move to devaluate the yuan by two per cent, dealers said.

At 9.10am, the benchmark FTSE Bursa Malaysia KLCI (FBM KLCI) was 11.88 points down at 1,624.83, after opening 7.5 points easier at 1,629.21.

Losers led gainers 278 to 65, while 122 counters remained unchanged, 1,326 untraded and 12 others suspended.

Turnover stood at 109.75 million shares worth RM41.47 million.

A dealer said world equity markets were wary amid fears of a new currency war.

Aliance DBS Research said the benchmark index continued to show a losing streak at close yesterday with sellers in control of game play while buyers were unwilling to take advantage of beaten down stocks despite some having declined by double digits.

It said the analysis of overall market action yesterday revealed that buying power was weaker than selling pressure, with the FBM KLCI likely to trade below the 1,635.77 level today.

On the scoreboard, the FBM Emas Index fell 79.81 points to 11,175.79, the FBMT100 Index slipped 78.51 points to 10,887.11, and the FBM Emas Syariah Index eased 57.08 points to 11,635.81.

The FBM 70 was down 82.71 points to 12,009.17 and the FBM Ace depreciated 44.57 points to 5,714.71. On a sectoral basis, the Plantation Index slipped 83.48 points to 7,071.19, the Finance Index declined 152.56 points to 14,552.65, with the Industrial Index shedding 2.31 points for 3,130.22. Among actives, Frontken lost one sen to 22 sen, The Media Shoppe, AirAsia X and Sumatec eased half-a-sen each to 13 sen, 19.5 sen 14.5 sen respectively, while BTM warrant added 2.5 sen to 15.5 sen.

Among heavyweights, Axiata gained one sen to RM5.98, Maybank fell six sen to RM8.46, Public Bank slipped 18 sen to RM18.30, TNB eased four sen to RM10.90 while Sime Darby was flat at RM8.16. --BERNAMA