Profit taking drags share prices lower on first trading day of 2018

KUALA LUMPUR: Bursa Malaysia ended the first trading day of the New Year on a bearish note with the benchmark Composite Index (CI) retreating from its 2017’s high, dampened by profit taking in bluechip and selected heavyweights led by Sime Darby Plantation, dealers said.

The FTSE Bursa Malaysia KLCI (FBM KLCI) closed at 1,782.7, down 14.11 points or 0.79 per cent, from Friday’s close of 1,796.81.

The barometer index opened 13.71 points weaker at 1,783.1.

Sime Darby Plantation, despite news of a positive outlook for the company, retreated from the gains recorded last Friday. It declined 51 sen to close at RM5.49 with 9.04 million shares traded and dragged the CI down by 6.192 points.

A dealer said the recent rally on Bursa Malaysia, which boosted year-end window dressing ac- tivities, influenced investors to consolidate their positions yesterday.

He said buying in small capitalised stocks, however, helped cushion the losses incurred on Bursa, which bucked the trend compared with the performance of regional bourses on the back of China’s positive manufacturing data.

“Fundamentally, the market is strong with some good prospects to push the bourse higher. However, investors booked some profits to take advantage of current high prices,” he told Bernama.

The FBM KLCI finished 2017 at the year’s high of 1,796.81 on Dec 29, up 155.08 points or 9.45 per cent, from 1,641.73 recorded at end-2016.

Regionally, Hong Kong’s Hang Seng chalked up 1.99 per cent to 30,515.31, Singapore’s Straits Times rose 0.77 per cent to 3,429.29 and South Korea’s Kospi perked 0.49 per cent to 2,479.65.

Back home, market breadth, which turned positive in the afternoon session, saw 528 gainers against 490 losers while 329 counters were unchanged, 463 untraded and 19 others were suspended.

Total volume rose to 3.14 billion shares, worth RM2.77 billion, from 3.14 billion shares, valued at RM2.77 billion on Friday.

The local market was closed yesterday for the New Year holiday.

Among heavyweights, Maybank fell 14 sen to RM9.66, both Tenaga and CIMB eased four sen each to RM15.22 and RM6.50, respectively, and Public Bank trimmed two sen to RM20.76.

Petronas Chemicals, however, rose 15 sen to RM7.85.

Of actives, P.A Resources gained 1.5 sen to seven sen, Hubline perked two sen to 14 sen, Sino Hua-An earned three sen to 42 sen but Sapura Energy declined 3.5 sen to 67.5 sen.

The FBM Emas Index gave up 115.61 points for 12,826.96, FBMT 100 Index fell 125.79 points to 12,488.41, the FBM Emas Shariah Index erased 129.33 points to 13,173.47 and the FBM 70 dropped 250.27 points to 15,835.27.

However, the FBM Ace surged 108.48 points to 6,712.03.

Sector-wise, the Finance Index lost 49.78 points to 16,811.6, Industrial Index declined 11.18 points to 3,269.52 but the Plantation Index improved 11.01 points to 7,914.38.

Main Market volume rose to 2.22 billion units, worth RM1.88 billion, from 1.89 billion units, valued at RM2.49 billion, on Friday.

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