Lower on profit taking, trade war fears

BURSA Malaysia retreated to below the key 1,600-point support level yesterday amid profit-taking after Wednesday’s gains and a revival of trade war fears.

The benchmark FTSE Bursa Malaysia KLCI (FBM KLCI) fell 12.24 points to 1,599.19, with most index component stocks in the red. The index opened 2.21 points weaker at 1,609.22 in the morning and moved between a low of 1,599.19 and high of 1,610.78 throughout the day.

Losers trounced gainers 520 to 259 with 348 counters unchanged, 784 untraded and 23 others suspended.

Turnover decreased to 2.03 billion shares worth RM1.71 billion from 2.55 billion shares valued at

RM2.12 billion on Wednesday.

Inter-Pacific Securities Sdn Bhd head of research Pong Teng Siew said investors, especially those in retail, were in profit-taking mood and refused to make moves to buy.

He said the latest growth data released by Bank Negara Malaysia yesterday - in which the economy posted a 4.5 per cent growth in the first quarter - had minimal impact on the equity market.

In addition, the United StatesChina trade tensions continued to weigh on investor sentiment.

Among the heavyweights, Maybank declined five sen to RM8.96, Public Bank went down 22 sen to RM22.26 and Petronas Chemicals slipped one sen to RM8.8 but Petronas Dagangan rose 12 sen to RM24.52.

Of the actively-traded stocks, newly-listed Leong Hup International settled unchanged at its offer price of RM1.10 with 215.4 million shares changing hands.

Vortex was up one sen to 28.5 sen and Lambo was one lower at 6.5 sen.

The FBM Emas Index declined 89.79 points to 11,263.38, the FBMT 100 slid 89.77 points to 11,097.12 and the FBM 70 fell 131.44 points to 13,818.70.

The FBM Emas Shariah Index was down 93.54 points to 11,432.18 and the FBM ACE Index declined 22.11 points to 4,426.38.

Main Market volume declined to 1.16 billion shares worth RM1.54 billion from 1.35 billion shares worth RM1.94 billion yesterday.

Warrants turnover decreased to 345.23 million units valued at RM99.75 million from 371.31 million units worth RM94.57 million.

Volume on the ACE Market slipped to 521.16 million shares worth RM73.67 million from 829.93 million shares worth RM85.58 million.

The FBM KLCI futures contract on Bursa Malaysia Derivatives ended lower.

At the close, May 2019 declined 8.5 points to 1,596.0, June 2019 decreased 9.0 points to 1,597.0, September 2019 shed 10.5 points to 1,593.0, while December 2019 was 7.5 points lower at 1,595.0.

Turnover dropped to 6,077 lots from 6,730 lots on Wednesday and open interest fell to 33,446 contracts from 33,956 contracts.