Bursa Malaysia ends lower on profit-taking

KUALA LUMPUR: Bursa Malaysia ended lower yesterday on persistent profit-taking in selected heavyweights and lower-liners, dealers said.

At 5 pm, the FTSE Bursa Malaysia KLCI (FBM KLCI) ended 7.57 points weaker at 1,850.78 from Monday’s 1,858.35.

The benchmark index opened 4.85 points easier at 1,853.50 and moved between 1,849.08 and 1,858.78 throughout the day.

Market breadth was negative with 699 losers against 236 gainers, while 357 counters were unchanged, 580 untraded and 21 others suspended.

Volume dropped to 1.89 billion units valued at RM1.89 billion from the 2.07 billion units valued at RM1.63 billion previously.

A dealer said the volatility of the local bourse was mainly due to the counter-measures taken by China following the tariffs imposed by US President Donald Trump on imports of aluminum and steel, where China raised tariffs by up to 25 per cent on selective US food products.

“This has caused further investor concerns about trade war, unless there is an immediate diplomatic approach to ease the tension.

“Most stocks turned defensive and investors are seeking other safe-haven assets which are less affected by the situation,” the dealer told Bernama.

On the home front, the uncertainty on when the Dewan Rakyat would be dissolved has affected trading sentiment.

“The Dewan Rakyat could be dissolved anytime from now, thus, creating uncertainty among investors which makes them holding back from investing further,” he said.

Among heavyweights, Maybank and CIMB were flat at RM10.52 and RM7.20, respectively. Tenaga was 34 sen lower at RM15.86 and Petronas Chemicals eased four sen to RM8.25. Public Bank rose six sen to RM23.96.

Of the actively-traded stocks, PUC added one sen to 27 sen, Nexgram rose half-a-sen to 5.5 sen and Hibiscus Petroleum was down 3.5 sen to 81.5 sen.

The FBM Emas Index lost 79.29 points to 12,932.18, FBMT 100 Index fell 70.33 points to 12,745.04 and the FBM Emas Shariah Index was 124.41 points weaker at 13,078.51.

The FBM 70 was 147.31 points lower at 15,418.57 and the FBM Ace declined 136.89 points to 5,256.88.

Sector-wise, the Finance Index rose 17.17 points to 18,153.07, Plantation Index eased 3.50 points to 7,997.31 and the Industrial Index declined 7.86 points to 3,220.20.

Main Market volume declined to 1.20 billion units valued at RM1.77 billion from 1.31 billion units valued at RM1.52 billion on Monday.

Volume on the ACE Market decreased to 341.23 million shares worth RM57.79 million from 487.75 million shares worth RM85.5 million previously.

Warrants’ volume rose to 341.85 million units valued at RM62.91 million from 270.46 million units worth RM26.42 million on Monday.