Bursa Malaysia extends losses to close lower

KUALA LUMPUR: Bursa Malaysia extended Monday’s losses to finish lower yesterday as investors stayed on the sidelines to await fresh leads amid the reporting season month.

Hong Leong Investment Bank Research Analyst, Loui Low Ley Yee, told Bernama that the investors were also cautious ahead of the announcement of Malaysia’s third-quarter gross domestic product on Friday.

At 5pm, the benchmark FTSE Bursa Malaysia KLCI (FBM KLCI) fell 3.88 points, or 0.22 per cent, to close at 1,733.61 compared with Monday’s close of 1,737.49.

After opening 5.78 points higher at 1,743.27, the index moved between 1,733.31 and 1,744.61 throughout the day.

Market breadth was negative with losers outpacing gainers by 588 to 300, with 407 counters unchanged, 545 untraded and 20 others suspended.

Volume rose to 2.97 billion units worthRM2.60billionfromMonday’s 2.89 billion units worth RM2.24 billion.

Aside from the wait-and-see attitude adopted by the investors, Low said, the barometer index was also dragged down by the oil and gas (O&G) -related counters due to the fall in crude oil prices.

“Other than Petronas-linked counters, share prices of O&G counters such as Armada and Hibiscus also finished lower,” he said.

The benchmark Brent crude oil futures fell 0.22 per cent to US$63.02 (US$1 = RM4.18) per barrel while US West Texas Intermediate crude oil futures were 0.30 per cent lower at US$56.59 per barrel. PetGas led the top losers’ list among the heavyweight counters.

It fell 46 sen to RM16.98 and Petronas Chemicals dropped five sen to RM7.40. The two counters contributed a collective 2.22 points to the benchmark index’s losses.

For other heavyweights, Genting Bhd gave up 27 sen to RM9.08, Genting Malaysia declined 11 sen to RM4.94 and IOI Corp was six sen lower at RM4.36.

“The losses in Genting-related heavyweights counters were due to the continued foreign selling pressure since late last month,” Low said.

However, the fall in Bursa Malaysia was capped by gains in Maybank which bagged 18 sen to RM9.34. The finance-linked heavyweight alone contributed 3.29 points to the key index.

Among active counters, Sumatec added one sen to six sen while its warrant was flat at 2.5 sen.

Berjaya Corp gained 2.5 sen to 39.5 sen, Trive Property eased half-asen to nine sen while DGSB was unchanged at nine sen.

Sector-wise, the Industrial Index gave up 16.15 points to 3,175.75 and the Plantation Index was 45.84 points lower at 7,909.82. The Finance Index jumped 63.66 points to 16,243.96.

The FBM Emas Index plunged 21.64 points to 12,535.47, FBM Emas Shariah Index fell 25.59 points to 12,987.30, FBMT 100 Index eased 18.35 points to 12,173.94 and the FBM Ace was down 108.27 points to 6,678.71. The FBM 70 was 9.18 points better at 15,551.22.

Sector-wise, the Industrial Index erased 16.15 points to 3,175.75, the Plantation Index slid 45.84 points to 7,909.82 while the Finance Index bagged 63.66 points to 16,243.96.