KUALA LUMPUR: Bursa Malaysia turned downward as it opened for trading on Friday, tracking the negative performance on Wall Street overnight as Russia and Ukraine peace talks failed to make any progress.

       "Failure of the Russia-Ukraine talks on cease-fire, coupled with the inflationary pressure could lead to more hawkish tone in the FOMC meeting next week.

       "Hence, the retracement yesterday on Wall Street may put pressure on the local front and profit

       taking activities may emerge," said Malacca Securities Research in a report.

       Meanwhile, the energy sector could also see profit-taking activities as crude oil prices came off multi-year highs.

       At 9.05am, the FBM KLCI was down 6.33 points to 1,574.2.

       Press Metal led the decline with a 14 sen drop to RM6.41. Public Bank was down fie sen to RM4.39 and Hong Leong Bank shed 18 sen to RM19.98.

       However, plantation stocks remained firm on elevated CPO prices amid a supply shortage.

       Kuala Lumpur Kepong rose eight sen to RM26.28 while IOI was unchanged at RM4.30.

       On the broader market, technology counters were the among the hardest hit as the Nasdaq fell overnight ahead of the approaching US Federal Reserve monetary policy meeting.

       MPI shed RM2.18 to RM30.88, KESM dropped 47 sen to RM8.38 and D&O fell 12 sen to RM3.82.

       Most actives were Hibiscus Petroleum down three sen to RM1.17, SMTrack unchanged at 10 sen and DNeX sliding two sen to 98 sen.