Weak sentiment drags Bursa Malaysia lower
valued at RM2.79 billion.
A dealer said despite numerous positive corporate earnings results, interest in the market has been clouded by the unfavourable developments on the external front, pushing investors towards consolidation. He said the sentiment was influenced by the mixed closing of US stock market, which saw investors booked early profits from technology stocks, alongside bullish manufacturing data from China.
“We are lacking significance factors to lift Bursa Malaysia, even Sime Darby Bhd’s demerged plantation and property arms were also not appealing enough to boost the momentum,” he told Bernama.
Sime Darby Plantation fell 58 sen to RM5.01 and Sime Darby Property lost 30 sen to RM1.20. Both stocks carried composite index (CI) weightage of 3.763 per cent and 1.01, respectively.
Sime Darby Bhd, which accounted for 6.018 per cent of the CI’s weightage and the most actively-traded stock yesterday, rose 50 sen to RM2.35 with 124.72 million shares traded.
Among heavyweights, Tenaga rose six sen to RM15.46, CIMB was up 11 sen to RM6.05, while Maybank, which posted strong third-quarter results yesterday, increased five sen to RM9.25 with 62.09 shares transacted.
Of the actives, Press Metal perked 11 sen to RM5.20, SP Setia bagged seven sen to RM3.49, while Trive Property inched up half-asen to six sen.
On the scoreboard, the FBM Emas Index rose by 8.81 points to 12,408.31, FBMT 100 Index gained 13.07 points to 12,069.46, FBM Emas Shariah Index improved 9.44 points to 12,920.15 and the FBM 70 Index surged 130.37 points to 15,440.48.
The FBM Ace, however, gave up 84.74 points to 6,311.63.
Sector-wise, the Finance Index rose 21.44 points to 15,926.33, Plantation Index bagged 18.73 points to 7,894.19 and the Industrial Index soared 79.71 points to 3,172.89.
The Main Market volume rose to 1.83 billion units worth at RM5.94 billion from 1.38 billion units worth RM2.7 billion on Wednesday.
For further information on stocks and prices, please visit www.bursamalaysia.com.