KUALA LUMPUR: Bursa Malaysia opened on a weak note on Monday, tracking the heavy selling on Wall Street last Friday as investors reacted to further affirmaton of more aggressive US rate hikes.

       At 9.05am, the FBM KLCI was down 5.33 points to 1,596.64. The overall market was noticeably negative with 495 decliners compared to 96 gainers.

       "While foreign funds continue to support the local bourse, the overnight selldown on Wall Street may impact negatively in the technology sector.

       "Investor may also monitor Malaysia’s inflation data which will be releasing later today," said Malacca Securities Research in a note.

       Blue chips were mostly lower led by Petronas Chemicals falling 20 sen to RM10.10, Press Metal dropping 20 sen to RM6.23 and Axiata sliding four sen to RM3.56.

       Maybank lost three sen to RM8.91, Public Bank fell four sen to RM4.68 and CIMB was down two sne to RM5.15.

       Among tech counters, MPI fell RM1.20 to RM30.80 and Vitrox shed 16 sen to RM7.34.

       Top actives were Jaya Tiasa up nine sen to RM1.21, DNeX down two sen to RM1.03 and SMTrack dropping 0.5 sen to eight sen.