Bursa lower on selling in selected blue chips

BURSA Malaysia ended the week lower, weighed down by selling in heavyweight stocks in the plantation and telecommunications sectors.

At 5pm, the benchmark FTSE Bursa Malaysia KLCI (FBM KLCI) slipped 3.35 points to 1,571.15 from Thursday’s close of 1,574.50.

The index, which opened 1.78 points easier at 1,572.72, moved between 1,567.85 and 1,576.87 throughout the day.

On the broader market, losers led gainers 432 to 401, with 398 counters unchanged, 772 untraded and 14 others suspended.

Turnover rose to 2.95 billion shares worth RM2.22 billion from 2.33 billion shares worth RM1.88 billion on Thursday.

Bursa Malaysia stayed in the red for most of the trading session, weighed by profit-taking in selected heavyweight stocks, which saw range-bound trading on blue-chips, said a trader.

Among heavyweights, Maybank shed two sen to RM8.50, TNB added four sen to RM13.80, PetChem gained four sen each to RM7.38, and IHH lost seven sen to RM5.67. Public Bank was flat at RM19.28.

Of the most actives, KNM Group and MyEG climbed one sen each to 45.5 sen and RM1.26, respectively, MTAG improved 2.5 sen to 51 sen and Bumi Armada edged up half-a-sen at 44.5 sen.

Sapura Energy eased half-a-sen to 27 sen while PUC was flat at 5.5 sen.

The FBM Emas Index decreased 20.03 points to 11,189.74, the FBMT 100 Index shed 20.74 points to 11,004.80 and the FBM 70 reduced 15.40 points to 14,121.77.

The FBM Emas Shariah Index was 39.40 points lower at 11,801.23, while the FBM ACE declined 11.42 points to 4,783.24.

Sector-wise, the Financial Services Index rose 53.12 points to 15,274.63, the Industrial Products & Services Index was 0.18 of-a-point better at 152.56, but the Plantation Index dropped 95.42 points to 6,624.73.

Main Market volume rose to 1.89 billion units worth RM1.98 billion from Thursday’s 1.53 billion units worth RM1.69 billion.

Warrants turnover widened to 404.0 million units worth RM75.57 million from 348.82 million units worth RM59.48 million.

Volume on the ACE Market increased to 665.01 million shares worth RM173.66 million from 455.61 million shares worth RM126.32 million on Thursday.

The FBM KLCI futures contract on Bursa Malaysia Derivatives ended lower in line with the weaker performance of the cash market.

At the close, spot month October 2019 and March 2020 shed 7.5 points each to 1,568.5 and 1,570.5 respectively, while November 2019 and December 2019 slipped 7.0 points each to 1.569 and 1,571, respectively.

Turnover reduced to 4,292 lots from 4,947 on Thursday, while open interest increased to 31,418 contracts from 31,308 previously.