Bursa Malaysia ends at over 2-week low

KUALA LUMPUR: Bursa Malaysia extended last week’s losses to close at its lowest level since May 31, 2018, mainly hurt by gloomy market sentiment amid weaker crude oil prices, dealers said.

A dealer said the bearish performance on the local bourse, which was in sync with regional markets, was weighed down by fears of a potential trade war between the United States and China.

At the close, the key FTSE Bursa Malaysia KLCI (FBM KLCI) fell 18.35 points or 1.04 per cent to 1,743.43, after opening 16.20 points lower at 1,745.58 against last Thursday’s close of 1,761.78.

The index moved between 1,735.30 and 1,748.67 throughout the day.

On the broader market, losers outpaced gainers by 583 to 304, with 336 counters unchanged, 688 untraded and 22 others suspended.

Turnover stood at 1.90 billion shares worth RM2.03 billion.

The market was traded halfday on Thursday and closed on Friday for the Hari Raya Aidilfitri holiday.

The dealer said investor concerns heightened after US President Donald Trump announced US$50 billion in new tariffs on Chinese imports last Friday, while China retaliated by slapping tariffs of US$34 billion on US imports within 24 hours of Trump’s move.

“Worries over the trade spat also affected the crude oil prices,” he said.

Regionally, Japan’s Nikkei dipped 171.42 points or 0.75 per cent to 22,680.33, Singapore’s Straits Times fell 33.61 points or one per cent to 3,323.12 and South Korea’s Kospi slumped 27.80 points or 1.16 per cent to 2,376.24.

Back home, among the actively traded stocks, Kretam tumbled 23.5 sen to 46 sen and Sapura Energy eased two sen to 63 sen.

IRIS Corp gained two sen to 15.5 sen, Barakah was one sen lower at 18.5 sen while MyEG was flat at 96.5 sen.

Of the heavyweights, Maybank shed five sen to RM9.55, Public Bank eased four sen to RM24.00, Tenaga slid 18 sen to RM14.32, CIMB gave up seven sen to RM5.90 while Petronas Chemicals was up four sen to RM8.38.

The FBM Emas Index slid 112.20 points to 12,266.58, the FBMT100 Index declined 112.69 points to 12,052.09, the FBM Emas Shariah Index slumped 148.26 points to 12,325.45 and the FBM70 was 84.65 points lower at 14,743.68.

The FBM Ace Index added 2.06 points to 5,320.38.

Sector-wise, the Finance Index dipped 121.18 points to 17,371.66, the Industrial Index lost 12.55 points to 3,152.70 and the Plantation Index was down by 110.91 points to 7,671.74.

MainMarketvolumeimproved to 1.28 billion shares worth RM1.93 billion from 1.08 billion shares worth RM2.92 billion last Thursday.

Warrants volume decreased to 230.07 million units valued at RM27.98 million versus 248.99 million units valued at RM56.16 million previously.

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