Bursa ends marginally lower
BURSA Malaysia ended slightly lower yesterday, with the benchmark index easing 0.06 per cent on mild profit-taking in selected blue chips, including Public Bank and Petronas Chemicals.
At 5pm, the benchmark FTSE Bursa Malaysia KLCI (FBM KLCI) lost 0.98 of-a-point to 1,637.40 from Friday’s close of 1,638.38. After opening 1.08 points lower at 1,637.30, the ??index moved between 1,631.83 and 1,637.49 throughout the session.
Losers overwhelmed gainers 623 to 255 while 341 counters were unchanged, 693 untraded and 60 others suspended. Turnover stood at 2.53 billion shares worth RM1.64 billion.
However, the losses were
capped by news report that quoted an analyst as saying he expected a fund flow reversal in Malaysia’s equities market as early as the third quarter of this year.
Among heavyweights, Maybank remained flat at RM9.14, Public Bank fell eight sen to RM22.56, Petronas Chemicals slid 10 sen to RM9.00, while Tenaga rose six sen to RM12.20.
Of the actively-traded stocks, Bumi Armada rose half-a-sen to 23.5 sen, Sumatec eased half-asen to one sen, Seacera erased seven sen to 24.5 sen and Ekovest declined five sen to 89.5 sen.
Among the gainers, Yee Lee Corporation added 39 sen to RM2.33, PLB Engineering gained 24 sen to RM1.42 and Sunsuria rose 10 sen to 73.5 sen.
The FBM Emas Index was 33.15 points lower at 11,632.66, the FBMT 100 decreased 30.10 points to 11,447.02 and the FBM 70 was down 132.19 points to 14,598.54.
The FBM Emas Shariah Index was 59.21 points weaker at 11,826.71 and the FBM ACE Index fell 124.75 points to 4,669.09.
Sector-wise, the Financial Services Index went up 5.91 points to 16,887.37, the Plantation Index slid 24.43 points to 7,274.04 and the Industrial Products and Services Index eased 1.93 points to 170.08.
Main Market volume shrank to 1.85 billion shares valued at RM1.49 billion against 2.20 billion shares valued at RM1.94 billion on Friday.
Warrants turnover increased to 386.87 million units worth RM95.53 million from 354.91 million units worth RM70.76 million.
Volume on the ACE Market dwindled to 284.84 million shares valued at RM47.45 million versus 286.34 million shares valued at RM48.79 million previously.
The FBM KLCI futures contract on Bursa Malaysia Derivatives ended mostly higher on improved market sentiments.
At the close, April 2019 gained a point to 1,637.50 and September 2019 added half-a-point to 1,630.00, while June 2019 fell a point to 1,631.50. However, May 2019 was unchanged at 1,632.00.
Turnover fell to 13,315 lots from 30,960 lots on Friday, while open interest eased to 43,164 contracts from 61,591 contracts.