Hit by selling pressure in heavyweight stocks

BURSA Malaysia ended lower yesterday, hurt by continued selling pressure in heavyweights and industrial product counters, amid mixed sentiment in Asian bourses, dealers said.

The FBM KLCI finished at 1,821.60, down 7.03 points. The market barometer moved between 1,821.21 and 1,831.32 during the day.

Overall, the market breadth was bearish as losers outnumbered gainers by 764 to 274, while 372 counters were unchanged, 422 untraded and 32 suspended.

Hengyuan Refining and Petron Malaysia topped the losers list, declining RM1.80 and 86 sen each to RM12 and RM11.28, respectively.

TNB, Petronas Gas and Genting Malaysia fell 22 sen, 62 sen and 21 sen each to RM15.60, RM17.32 and RM5.36, respectively, contributing 6.60 points towards the loss in the FBM KLCI.

Of the other heavyweights, Maybank shed 2 sen to to RM9.86, CIMB Group rose 3 sen to RM6.80 while Public Bank and Petronas Chemicals were flat at RM20.88 and RM8.17, respectively.

A dealer said the local benchmark index was down due to the European Union’s approval of the draft measures to ban the use of palm oil, a major import from Southeast Asia, in motor fuels from 2021.

He said most Asian bourses were mixed as investors were digesting a series of data released by China, including gross domestic product. – Bernama