Bursa Malaysia ends the week marginally lower

Bursa Malaysia ended the week marginally lower yesterday, tracking the retracement of its Asian peers and amid the global retreat from riskier assets and a sharp overnight fall on Wall Street due to political turmoil in the United States as well as the terrorist attack in Spain.

The FTSE Bursa Malaysia KLCI (FBM KLCI) eased by 0.09 of a point to end at an intraday high of 1,776.22, after moving between 1,770.04 and 1,776.22.

It opened 3.97 points easier at 1,772.34 from Thursday’s close of 1,776.31.

Market breadth was negative, as losers outpaced gainers 472 to 357, with 374 counters unchanged, 644 untraded and 44 others suspended.

Volume fell to 1.45 billion units worth RM1.58 billion from 1.80 billion units worth RM1.88 billion on Thursday.

A dealer said global markets retreated from riskier assets on uncertainties over US Presi- dent Donald Trump’s ability to fulfill his economic agenda, with confidence further eroded after the terrorist attack in Barcelona, Spain, which exacerbated uncertainties surrounding the equities market.

Bursa Malaysia also slipped into a correction mode with mild profit taking activity in ending marginally lower, while lifted in part by positive local sentiment, brought on by Malaysia’s second quarter gross domestic product which grew higher than consensus expectation at 5.8 per cent.

Japan’s Nikkei 225 slipped 1.18 per cent to 19,470.41, Hong Kong’s Hang Seng fell 0.71 per cent to 27,149.69 , Singapore Straits Times index eased 0.44 per cent to 3,254.35 and South Korea’s Kospi shed 0.14 per cent to 2,358.37.

Among heavyweights, Maybank shed four sen to RM9.66, Sime Darby slid two sen to RM9.28, Petronas Chemicals fell 10 sen to RM7.18, while Public Bank added two sen to RM20.58.

Tenaga and CIMB Group were flat at RM14.24 and RM6.77 respectively.

Of actives, UMW Oil and Gas added two sen to 33 sen, Hubline gained half-a-sen to six sen, MTouche slid 2.5 sen to 27.5 sen, while JAG and Compugates were traded unchanged at 14.5 sen and three sen respectively.

The FBM Emas Index edged up 0.08 of a point to 12,626.22, the FBM Emas Shariah Index added 4.65 points to 12,770.88, the FBMT 100 Index gained 2.35 points to 12,284.26 and the FBM 70 increased 13.89 points to 14,992.91.

The FBM Ace dropped 63.68 points to 6,512.63.

Sector-wise, the Industrial Index was 1.64 points better at 3,230.28, the Plantation Index rose 46.05 points to 7,825, but the Finance Index declined 12.31 points to 16,777.48.

Main Market volume declined to 888.82 million shares worth RM1.43 billion from 1.02 billion shares worth RM1.70 billion on Thursday.

Volume on the ACE Market fell to 334.55 million units valued at RM97.32 million from Thursday’s 448.89 million units valued at RM119.13 million.

Warrants declined to 218.58 million shares worth RM42.94 million from 314.78 million shares worth RM49.79 million previously.

Consumer products accounted for 64.32 million shares traded on the Main Market, industrial products (193.09 million), construction (64 million), trade and services (373.84 million), technology (39.26 million), infrastructure (3.74 million), SPAC (1.08 million), finance (53.38 million), hotels (5.26 million), properties (69.07 million), plantations (16.52 million), mining (12,000), REITs (5.25 million) and closed/fund (7,900). For further information on stocks and prices, please visitwww.bursamalaysia. com.