Lower in line with regional peers

SHARES on Bursa Malaysia closed lower yesterday in line with regional peers, weighed by the Sino-United States trade tensions that have escalated into a technology cold war between the two nations.

At the close, the benchmark FTSE Bursa Malaysia KLCI (FBM KLCI) eased 1.87 points to 1,601.87.

The market barometer opened 3.8 points lower at 1,599.94 and hovered between 1,589.79 and 1,605.13 throughout the day.

“While risk sentiment had improved in the region during the first few months of the year, the deadlock in United States-China trade talks since the start of this month has caused disarray in the markets,” said a dealer.

Market breadth was negative as

losers beat gainers 718 to 188 with 314 counters unchanged, 677 untraded and 23 others suspended.

Turnover increased to 2.37 billion units worth RM2.11 billion from Tuesday’s 1.8 billion units worth RM1.46 billion.

Among the heavyweights, Maybank added three sen to RM9.02, Public Bank climbed two sen to RM22.50 and CIMB gained one sen to RM5.15.

Petronas Chemicals fell 19 sen to RM8.63 and Tenaga lost two sen to RM11.66.

Of the actively-traded stocks, Vortex lost 3.5 sen to 27 sen, Sapura Energy and Lambo slipped one sen each to 30 sen and 5.5 sen, respectively, Dayang shed 24 sen to 89 sen and Barakah declined two sen to five sen.

The FBM Emas Index lost 45.58 points to 11,209.73, the FBMT 100 was 34.22 points lower at 11,064.4 and the FBM 70 fell 128.86 points to 13,569.57.

The FBM Emas Shariah Index declined 66.85 points to 11,332.28 and the FBM ACE Index dipped 103.31 points to 4,288.9.

Sector-wise, the Financial Services Index decreased 31.93 points to 16,553.32, the Plantation Index fell 45.15 points to 6,837.42 and the Industrial Products and Services Index was 1.78 points lower at 161.42.

Main Market volume increased to 1.51 billion shares worth RM1.92 billion from Tuesday’s 1.17 billion shares worth RM1.34 billion.

Warrants turnover swelled to 444.03 million units valued at RM120.49 million from 292.27 million units valued at RM73.76 million.

Volume on the ACE Market expanded to 420.55 million shares worth RM70.87 million from 331.36 million shares worth RM40.73 million previously.

The FBM KLCI futures contract on Bursa Malaysia Derivatives closed mostly lower yesterday on lack of fresh leads.

June 2019 lost two points to 1,601.5 and December 2019 eased 1.5 points to 1,598.

May 2019 and September 2019 were flat at 1,601.5 and 1,599, respectively.

Turnover declined to 7,716 lots from 7,983 lots on Tuesday while open interest increased to 35,875 contracts from 35,387 contracts previously.