Bursa Malaysia closes lower on continued sell-offs

KUALA LUMPUR: Bursa Malaysia ended 9.78 points or 0.58 per cent lower yesterday on continued sell-offs and in line with its regional peers, dealers said.

At 5pm, the key FTSE Bursa Malaysia KLCI (FBM KLCI) closed at the intra-day low of 1,666.08 from Tuesday’s close of 1,675.86.

The index opened 1.62 points lower at 1,674.24 and moved between 1,666.08 and 1,681.44 throughout the trading session.

Losers outpaced gainers 558 to 278, with 410 counters unchanged, 677 untraded and 92 others suspended.

Volume stood at 2.00 billion units valued at RM1.99 billion.

Inter-Pacific Securities Sdn Bhd head of research Pong Teng Siew said the negative sentiment was due to China’s currency, renminbi (RMB), rapidly weakening as the trade conflict between the United States (US) and China escalated.

“China is perhaps adopting a weak RMB policy as a countermeasure against the US, which is planning to impose restrictions on the country’s investment in the US.

“This will not only be negative for the US, as it is working on bringing its deficit down, but also Asia, especially exporters across the region as they must remain more competitive with the weakening currency,” he told Bernama.

He added that as long as the trade friction continued, markets would continue to remain volatile, including Malaysia.

Of heavyweights, Maybank lost 32 sen to RM8.68, Public Bank gained 20 sen to RM23.10, Tenaga eased two sen to RM13.82, Petronas Chemicals improved four sen to RM8.45 and CIMB rose one sen to RM5.40.

Among actives, Sapura Energy gave up 1.5 sen to 63.5 sen, Barakah eased 2.5 sen to 12 sen and Borneo Oil was flat at seven sen.

The FBM Emas Index decreased 68.79 points to 11,788.66, the FBMT100 Index retreated 65.85 points to 11,581.41 and the FBM70 was 73.89 points easier at 14,408.25.

The FBM Ace Index shrank 61.47 points to 5,078.10 and the FBM Emas Shariah Index fell 67.30 points to 11,920.53.

Sector-wise, the Finance Index erased 92.68 points to 16,423.80, the Industrial Index dropped 14.00 points to 3,103.35 and the Plantation Index declined 37.13 points to 7,493.41.

Main Market volume remained at 1.21 billion shares worth RM1.78 billion, from 1.21 billion shares valued at RM1.77 billion on Tuesday.

Warrants turnover rose to 530.93 million units valued at RM164.07 million, against 490.27 million units worth RM129.48 million previously.

Volume on the ACE Market increased to 260.38 million shares worth RM37.04 million, versus Tuesday’s 172.36 million shares valued at RM29.08 million.

Consumer products accounted for 59.87 million shares traded on the Main Market, industrial products (158.28 million), construction (101.62 million), trade and services (649.86 million), technology (63.64 million), infrastructure (10.58 million), SPAC (1.05 million), finance (57.83 million), hotels (432,400), properties (81.83 million), plantations (25.08 million), mining (6,500), REITs (3.92 million) and closed/fund (8,400).

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