Bursa Malaysia ends lower on persistent selling

KUALA LUMPUR: Bursa Malaysia ended lower yesterday on continued selling in indexlinked counters as sentiment remains bearish, amid global trade tensions and geopolitical uncertainty, dealers said.

At 5pm, the benchmark FTSE Bursa Malaysia KLCI ( FBM KLCI) was 8.67 points or 0.485 per cent weaker at 1,777.27 from Wednesday’s close of 1,785.94.

The index opened 3.82 points lower at 1,782.12 and moved between 1,782.28 and 1,773.74 throughout the morning session.

On the broader market, losers outpaced gainers 591 to 301 with 437 unchanged, 552 untraded and 30 others suspended.

Volume shrank to 2.10 billion units worth RM1.91 billion, from 2.40 billion units valued at RM2.03 billion on Wednesday.

A dealer said most regional peers also slumped as investors were cautious about a slowdown in China’s economic growth amid renewed trade discussions between China and the US, expected this month.

Besides that, the ongoing Turkey’s currency crisis also continued to weigh on sentiment.

In the latest development, it was reported that the US ruled out removing steel tariffs even if Ankara were to free a US pastor, Andrew Brunson, that Ankara linked to the 2016 failed coup attempt and on national security grounds.

On the local bourse, heavyweights, Maybank, Public Bank and CIMB were all flat at RM9.79, RM24.48 and RM5.88 respectively.

Tenaga eased eight sen to RM15.74 and Petronas Chemicals lost six sen to RM9.24.

Of the actives, ASB added half- a- sen to 17 sen, AHB rose 3.0 sen to 21 sen and Nova MSC fell half- a- sen to 17.5 sen.

Of the top losers, BAT slid 66 sen to RM35.34, Heineken dipped 32 sen to RM22.12 and Petronas Gas slipped 28 sen to RM18.38.

The FBM Emas Index declined 63.72 points to 12,578.73, the FBMT100 Index fell 64.34 points to 12,348.02 and the FBM 70 lost 95.21 points to 15,338.47.

The FBM Emas Shariah Index reduced 87.43 points to 12,734.85 and the FBM Ace was 11.92 points lower at 5,523.04.

Sector- wise, the Finance Index shed 36.64 points to 17,389.21, the Plantation Index went down 48.25 points to 7,571.64 and the Industrial Index eased 20.09 points to 3,224.25.

Main Market volume slipped to 1.39 billion shares worth RM1.72 billion, from 1.67 billion shares valued at RM1.84 billion on Wednesday.

Warrants turnover improved to 372.13 million units valued at RM105.98 million, against 350.54 million units worth RM81.13 million recorded previously.

Volume on the ACE Market declined to 339.35 million shares valued at RM80.82 million, versus Wednesday’s 378.80 million shares worth RM105.46 million.

Consumer products accounted for 133.68 million shares traded on the Main Market, industrial products ( 307.23 million), construction ( 83.24 million), trade and services ( 525.87 million), technology ( 151.71 million), infrastructure ( 14.86 million), SPAC (44,000), finance ( 31.31 million), hotels ( 1.18 million), properties ( 125.65 million), plantations ( 16.85 million), mining (16,500), REITs ( 2.97 million), and closed/ fund ( 17,000).

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