Bursa Malaysia ends lower

KUALA LUMPUR: Bursa Malaysia settled 0.16 per cent lower yesterday as the euphoria over the announcement of 2018 Budget had fizzled out, a dealer said.

At 5pm, the benchmark FTSE Bursa Malaysia KLCI (FBM KLCI) ended 2.88 points to close at 1,741.05 compared with Tuesday’s finish of 1,743.93 after opening 0.01 of-a-point higher at 1,743.94.

On the broader market, the tone was negative with losers leading gainers 517 to 339 with 372 counters unchanged, 582 untraded and 18 others suspended. Volume shrank to 2.91 billion shares, worth RM2.09 billion, from 3.07 billion shares, valued at RM2.3 billion, registered on Wednesday.

Inter-Pacific Securities Head of Research, Pong Teng Siew said foreign selling in blue chips also led to the bearish performance.

“Last week, investors were very excited ahead of the 2018 Budget announcement which prompted the index to touch 1,751.5 points, however, the FBM KLCI retreated to the 1,733.67 points level,” he told Bernama.

Commenting on oil and gas (O&G) stocks, he noted that most of the counters on Bursa Malaysia are supporting the exploration activities.

“Due to asset overhang, low charter rate and lower percentage of asset utilisation, the impact of favourable oil prices on O & Grelated stock prices are minimal and it would take longer to be reflected in the prices,” he added.

At the close, IHH, MISC and Tenaga declined eight sen each to RM5.56, RM7.00 and RM14.90, respectively, PetDag erased 20 sen to RM23.90, Genting eased six sen to RM9.00, BAT lost 54 sen at RM37.70 while Ambank trimmed five sen at RM4.28.

Among active counters, Huaan improved half-a-sen at 29 sen, Ekovest gained four sen at 99 sen, Trive shed one set at 12.5 sen and SEnergy declined 13 sen to RM1.49.

The FBM Emas Index shed 31.29 points to 12,559.19, the FBMT100 Index was 30.56 points weaker at 12,194.29, the FBM Emas Shariah Index declined 45.99 points to 13,030.80, the FBM Ace dipped 10.96 points to 6,870.43 and the FBM 70 eased 77.26 points to 15,459.33.

Sector-wise, the Plantation Index was 13.54 points higher at 8,016.63, the Finance Index was 28.47 points better at 16,260.6 while the Industrial Index slipped 13.07 points to 3,176.60.

The Main Market volume increased slightly to 2.08 billion shares worth RM1.94 billion from 2.01 billion shares worth RM2.16 billion on Wednesday.

Volume on the ACE Market shrank to 511.64 million shares worth RM 122.03 million from 673.4 million units worth RM110.73 million previously.

Warrants volume declined to 307.76 million shares worth RM22.86 million from 361.90 million shares worth RM26.8 million previously.

Consumer products accounted for 122.19 million shares traded on the Main Market, industrial products (401.93 million), construction (479.42 million), trade and services (605.10 million ), technology (213.78 million), infrastructure (6.95 million ), SPA C (799,800), finance (29.42 million), hotels (1.97 million), properties (120.87 million), plantations (23.31 million), mining (11,900), REITs (9.09 million), and closed/fund (304,300).

For further information on stocks and prices, please visit www.bursamalaysia.com.