KL shares retreat on weak sentiment

KUALA LUMPUR: Bursa Malaysia finished lower across the board, with the key index retreating from recent gains, dampened by concerns over external developments which curbed the risk appetite of investors for equities.

The benchmark FTSE Bursa Malaysia KLCI ( FBM KLCI) closed 6.26 points lower at 1,820.61 from Tuesday’s close of 1,826.9.

It moved in a tight range of between 1,815.74 and 1,822.43 throughout the day due to continuous selling in indexlinked counters.

Major losses in blue chips included Petronas Chemicals, DiGi, Hartalega, IHH Healthcare, and Dialog.

Inter- Pacific Securities Sdn Bhd head of research Pong Teng Siew said major Southeast Asian bourses were down as investors turned cautious ahead of the Sept 5 deadline for public comment on President Donald Trump’s increased tariffs on Chinese imports.

“It thus offset the optimism over the US-Mexico trade deal. Some emerging markets came under pressure again due to the trade issue with no fresh solutions from the trade talks between the US and China.

“They need to resolve this and then, I believe, the market will rebound, especially for those (Southeast Asian bourses) that have trade relations with China,” he told Bernama.

Washington has proposed to impose tariffs of 25 per cent from 10 per cent initially on US$200 billion worth of imported Chinese goods.

Chinese stocks closed lower with the benchmark Shanghai Stock Exchange falling 0.31 per cent to 2,769.29.

Among other regional peers, the Singapore Straits Times Index fell 0.11 per cent to 3,243.92, but Hong Kong’s Hang Seng Index improved 0.23 per cent to 28,416.44 and Japan’s Nikkei 225 gained 0.15 per cent to 22,848.22.

On Bursa, overall market breadth on the broader market was weaker with losers trouncing gainers 629 to 355, with 337 counters unchanged, 588 untraded and 68 others suspended.

Volume rose to 2.69 billion units worth RM2.63 billion from Tuesday’s 2.57 billion units worth RM2.29 billion.

Of the heavyweights, Public Bank added four sen to RM25.04, while both Petronas Chemicals and CIMB improved one sen each to RM9.57 and RM6.09 respectively.

Tenaga lost two sen to RM15.70, but Maybank was flat at RM10.

Among actives, Sapura Energy was flat at 35 sen, Vivocom inched down half-a-sen to 2.5 sen, XoX eased 1.5 sen to 6.5 sen, while MyEG bagged 11 sen to RM1.48.

The FBM Emas Index was 60.62 points lower at 12,753.72, the FBMT 100 Index fell 60.66 points to 12,549.5 and the FBM Emas Shariah Index eased 89.9 points to 12,868.51.

The FBM 70 lost 139.35 points at 15,215.53, while the FBM Ace Index eased 37.25 points to 5,345.46.

Sector- wise, the Industrial Index lost 13.31 points to 3,235.46, the Plantation Index fell 33.5 points to 7,572.8.However, the Finance Index rose 55.02 points to 17,945.75.

Main Market volume widened slightly to 1.74 billion shares worth RM2.46 billion from Tuesday’s 1.54 billion shares valued at RM2.04 billion.

Warrants turnover declined to 386.29 million units worth RM85.82 million against 446.35 million units valued at RM145.78 million.

Volume on the ACE Market decreased to 558.44 million shares worth RM78.49 million versus yesterday’s 583.52 million shares valued at RM109.94 million.

Consumer products accounted for 105.28 million shares traded on the Main Market, industrial products ( 372.63 million), construction (97.49 million), trade and services ( 812.33 million), technology ( 112.7 million), infrastructure (14 million), SPAC (91,000), finance (83.99 million), hotels (383,400), properties (105.08 million), plantations ( 32.21 million), mining (2,000), REITs (5.17 million) and closed/fund (8,000).

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