Local bourse ends at eight-month low

BURSA Malaysia slipped to its lowest level since March 15, 2017 to finish at an intra-day low yesterday on continued selling pressure in heavyweights amid weaker crude oil prices.

The FBM KLCI fell 10.62 points, or 0.61%, to 1,722.99. The composite index opened 0.29 point better and moved between 1,722.99 and 1,736.40 during the day.

On the broader market, losers trounced gainers by 638 to 254, with 379 counters unchanged, 569 untraded and 21 suspended.

In a note yesterday, Hong Leong Investment Bank Research (HLIB Research) said Bursa Malaysia tracked the downtrend in Asian equity markets, which were dragged down by the fall in crude oil prices and weaker-than-expected Chinese economic data released on Tuesday.

HLIB Research said the uninspiring local performance was also due to the muted 2017 third quarter reporting season and the uncertainly on when the general election would be held.

Among the heavyweights, Maybank fell 13 sen to RM9.21, Petronas Chemicals slipped 15 sen to RM7.25, CIMB and Digi eased nine sen each to RM6.00 and RM4.72 and Maxis was down seven sen to RM5.88.

Petronas Dagangan led the list of top losers, slipping 64 sen to RM23.08. It was followed by Petron Malaysia, which declined 42 sen to RM11.84, Heng Yuan four sen to RM10.00, Hong Leong Financial 36 sen to RM16.20 and PMB Technology 22 sen to RM3.83. – Bernama