Bursa lower on US-China trade spat impact

THE FTSE Bursa Malaysia KLCI (FBM KLCI) rebounded from earlier losses to finish the day just a whisker below the 1,600 psychological mark yesterday.

At 5 pm, the FBM KLCI eased 1.90 points to 1,599.19, the lowest since September 2015, after opening 20.24 points lower at 1,580.85. The benchmark index moved between a low of 1,572.03 and a high of 1,603.72 during the day.

Losers outnumbered gainers 488 to 386 with 381 counters unchanged, 654 untraded and 24 others suspended.

Turnover increased to 2.82 billion shares valued at RM2.46 billion from 2.48 billion shares worth RM1.65 billion on Monday.

Inter-Pacific Securities Sdn Bhd head of research Pong Teng Siew

said United States President Donald Trump’s prediction that the talks would be successful had eased concerns over a full-blown trade war with China.

Bank Islam Malaysia Bhd chief economist Dr Mohd Afzanizam Abdul Rashid said some institutional investors might have entered and supported the market.

“It remains to be seen whether the rebound can be sustained as the US is contemplating to raise tariffs on another US$300 billion (in Chinese) goods involving tech-related products,” he said, adding that the support level was at 1,596 points.

Among the heavyweights, Maybank dropped two sen to RM8.96, while Public Bank rose 14 sen to RM22.46, Tenaga added six sen to RM11.80 and CIMB climbed four sen to RM5.16.

Of the actively-traded stocks, Bumi Armada and Impiana were unchanged at 19 sen and four sen, respectively. Ekovest inched up 1.5 sen to 85.5 sen and Lambo was one sen higher at eight sen.

The FBM Emas Index declined 15.81 points to 11,258.73, the FBMT 100 dipped 18.84 points to 11,096.71 and the FBM 70 lost 46.42 points to 13,816.45.

The FBM Emas Shariah Index erased 32.20 points to 11,376.90 and the FBM ACE Index fell 23.45 points to 4,395.15.

Main Market volume rose to 1.81 billion shares worth RM2.30 billion from 1.56 billion shares valued at RM1.57 billion on Thursday.

Warrants turnover increased to 390.11 million units worth RM97.75 million from 181.85 million units worth RM22.63 million.

Volume on the ACE Market decreased to 618.18 million shares worth RM61.04 million from 740 million shares valued at RM57.29 million previously.

The FBM KLCI futures contract on Bursa Malaysia Derivatives ended higher yesterday.

At the close, May 2019 increased 10.0 points to 1,602.5, June 2019 rose 9.5 points to 1,604.0, September 2019 went up 6.0 points to 1,599.0 and December 2019 was 11.0 points better at 1,601.5.

Turnover expanded to 10,149 lots from 7,392 lots on Thursday and open interest increased to 36,495 contracts from 33,171 contracts.