Bursa Malaysia ends lower

KUALA LUMPUR: Bursa Malaysia bucked the trend in most regional markets to end lower yesterday, weighed by finance related stocks led by CIMB, Public Bank and Hong Leong Financial Group, dealers said.

At the close, the key FTSE Bursa Malaysia KLCI ( FBM KLCI) fell 2.52 points or 0.14 per cent to 1,775.8, after opening 3.9 points easier at 1,774.42 against Friday’s close of 1,778.32.

The index moved between 1,770.83 and 1,788.16 throughout the day.

On the broader market, losers led gainers by 488 to 404, with 382 counters unchanged, 637 untraded and 32 others suspended.

Volume decreased to 2.62 billion units worth RM2.40 billion from Friday’s 3.10 billion units worth RM2.42 billion.

A dealer said Bursa Malaysia shrugged the uptrend in regional bourse as local sentiment was dampened by some domestic issues.

According to reports, the Malaysian Anti- Corruption Commission raided the offices of Suria Strategic Energy Resources Sdn Bhd on its alleged pipeline scandal.

Regionally, Singapore’s Straits Times Index added 0.21 per cent to 3,442.42, Japan’s Nikkei gained 0.48 per cent to 22,804.04 and and Hong Kong’s Hang Seng Index advanced 0.34 per cent to 31,063.70.

Back home, among the actively traded stocks were MYEG which jumped 8.5 sen to 94 sen, Barakah Offshore Petroleum edged up half-a-sen to 19 sen, Cuscapi rose 1.5 sen to 25.5 sen, Sapura Energy was flat at 63.5 sen and Borneo Oil inched down half-a-sen to seven sen.

Of the heavyweights, CIMB lost 11 sen to RM6.21, Public Bank dropped 26 sen to RM24.34, Hong Leong Financial Group trimmed 48 sen to RM19.12, Maxis shed six sen to RM5.74 and Maybank slipped four sen to RM9.76.

Meanwhile, IHH Healthcare rose four sen to RM6.09 and Axiata rose 16 sen to RM4.79.

The FBM Emas Index eased 10.19 points to 12,462.88, the FBMT 100 Index fell 11.01 points to 12,259.55 but the FBM Ace advanced 22.25 points to 5,317.65.

The FBM Emas Shariah Index gained 37.33 points to 12,502.93 and the FBM 70 added 8.44 points at 14,936.80.

Sector-wise, the Finance Index shed 121.74 points to 17,756.16, the Industrial Index slipped 8.28 points to 3,193.9 and the Plantation Index went up to 77.23 points to 7,738.20.

Main Market volume shrank to 1.54 billion shares worth RM2.15 billion from 1.80 billion shares worth RM2.14 billion on Friday.

Warrants volume decreased to 661.61 million units valued at RM180.17 million against 692.90 million units valued at RM186.87 million.

Volume on the ACE Market fell to 415.05 million shares valued at RM77.22 million from 604.63 million shares valued at RM83.57 million.

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