KL shares finish lower in cautious trading

KUALA LUMPUR: Bursa Malaysia ended lower in cautious and jittery trading yesterday amid the uncertainty surrounding the latest trade update on the SinoUS trade war, which will see US imposing another US$200 billion tariff on Chinese goods.

The benchmark FTSE Bursa Malaysia KLCI (FBM KLCI) eased 6.08 points or 0.33 per cent to 1,813.58 after fluctuating between 1,809.57 and 1,822.52 throughout the day.

The local bourse opened 1.4 points better at 1,821.06 from Thursday’s close of 1,819.66.

The market was closed on Friday for the National Day holiday.

Regionally, Singapore’s Strait Times fell 0.36 per cent to 3,202.07, Japan’s Nikkei shed 0.5 per cent to 22,751.1, Hong Kong’s Hang Seng declined 0.78 per cent to 27,672.02 and Korea’s Kospi fell 0.52 per cent to 2,310.74.

Back home, the overall market breadth was weaker with losers trouncing gainers 723 to 267, with 365 counters unchanged, 530 untraded and 34 others were suspended.

Volume rose to 2.65 billion units, worth RM1.68 billion from Thursday’s 2.63 billion units valued at RM2.96 billion.

Of the key index stocks, Maybank added six sen to RM10.02, Tenaga rose two sen to RM15.70, PChem advanced five sen to RM9.51, CIMB gained one sen to RM6.10 while PBBank was flat at RM25.12.

Among actives, Hibscus and NetX gained half-a-sen each to 34.5 sen and 2.5 sen, respectively, PWorth erased one sen to five sen while BornOil was unchanged at 5.5 sen.

The FBM Emas Index was 47.42 points lower at 12,672.0, the FBMT 100 Index eased 40.0 points to 12,486.43, the FBM Emas Shariah Index erased 52.39 points to 12,754.68, the FBM 70 lost 41.41 points at 15,084.64 and the FBM Ace Index decreased 120.85 points to 5,162.86.

Sector-wise, the Finance Index shed 0.22 of-a-point to 17,964.75, the Plantation Index fell 58.27 points to 7,519.31 and the Industrial Index trimmed 5.41 points to 3,216.55.

Main Market volume narrowed to 1.44 billion shares valued at RM1.45 billion from 1.79 billion shares worth RM2.76 billion transacted on Thursday.

Warrants’ turnover rose to 591.33 million units, worth RM157.45 million, from last Thursday’s 483.96 million units worth RM117.22 million.

Volume on the ACE Market almost doubled to 614.03 million shares, worth RM72.36 million, from 353.44 million shares, valued at RM76.55 million, recorded on Thursday.

Consumer products accounted for 67.53 million shares traded on the Main Market, industrial products ( 384.27 million), construction (84.0 million), trade and services ( 654.27 million), technology ( 65.86 million), infrastructure ( 8.03 million), SPAC ( 18.0 million), finance (38.64 million), hotels (473,000), properties ( 104.82 million), plantations (16.5 million), mining (60,000), REITs (2.02 million) and closed/fund (16,400).

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