Bursa slips as investors stay on sidelines

BURSA Malaysia ended marginally lower yesterday on choppy trading as most investors opt to stay on the sidelines ahead of the meeting between United States President Donald Trump and his Chinese counterpart Xi Jinping at the Group of 20 summit in Japan this weekend.

The key FTSE Bursa Malaysia KLCI (FBM KLCI) was lower by 0.57 of-a-point at 1,672.13 compared with Thursday’s close of 1,672.70.

At the opening, the index was down 1.28 points at 1,671.42. It swung between 1,670.81 and 1,677.34 points throughout the day.

Losers beat gainers 414 to 333 with 450 counters unchanged, 711 untraded and 97 others suspended.

Turnover, however, increased to 2.22 billion units valued at RM1.84 billion from 1.84 billion units valued at RM1.9 billion on Thursday.

Maxis dropped 23 sen to RM5.57, Public Bank went down 16 sen to RM23, and Sime Darby and IOI Corp weakened by four sen each to RM2.26 and RM4.25, respectively.

Axiata was two sen lower at RM4.98 and MISC weakened five sen to RM7.15.

Among the heavyweight gainers, Tenaga added 16 sen to RM13.84, Petronas Gas advanced 26 sen to RM17.36 and Sime Darby Plantation inched up six sen to RM4.92.

Among the active counters, KNM gained 6.5 sen to 25.5 sen and Sapura Energy was half-a-sen better at 30 sen.

The FBM Emas Index fell 8.62 points to 11,781.58, the FBMT 100 Index was down 11.22 points at 11,631.65 and the FBM Emas Shariah Index rose 1.70 points to 12,132.94.

The FBM 70 shed 43.54 points to 14,599.71 while the FBM ACE inched up 3.01 points to 4,445.45.

Sector-wise, the Financial Services Index fell 22.62 points to 16,686.61, the Industrial Products and Services Index edged up 0.02 of-a-point to 160.72 and the Plantation Index gained 2.62 points to 6,968.90.

Main Market volume rose to 1.59 billion shares worth RM1.72 billion from 1.13 billion shares worth RM1.75 billion on Thursday.

Warrants turnover slid to 312.28 million units valued at RM68.32 million from 386.05 million units valued at RM79.96 million.

Volume on the ACE Market increased to 319.60 million shares worth RM57.76 million from 313.96 million shares worth RM65.22 million.

The FBM KLCI futures contract on Bursa Malaysia Derivatives closed higher yesterday.

June 2019 added 1.5 points to 1,675.5, July 2019 and September 2019 were higher by 2.0 points each to 1,678.0 and 1,674.5, respectively, while December 2019 was unchanged at 1,670.0.

Turnover decreased to 8,836 lots from 11,127 lots on Thursday, while open interest declined to 30,042 contracts from 34,848 contracts previously.