Bursa Malaysia ends lower on selling pressure

KUALA LUMPUR: Shares on Bursa Malaysia closed lower yesterday on selling pressure, mainly in plantation and financerelated stocks, dealers said.

At 5pm, the benchmark FTSE Bursa Malaysia KLCI (FBM KLCI) was down 20.79 points or 1.23 per cent to end at 1,665.32 after moving between 1,657.88 and 1,674.68 throughout the day.

Losers thumped gainers 710 to 279, while 254 counters were unchanged, 560 untraded and 30 others suspended. Volume increased to 2.34 billion shares worth RM2.31 billion from 2.01 billion shares worth RM1.70 billion.

Maybank Investment Bank Research (Maybank IB) in its note yesterday said foreign investors were net buyers of Malaysian equities in October, but selling on banks has been persistent.

It said the aggregate foreign shareholding in banks has declined from 34 per cent end June-2007 to 23.8 per cent end Sept 2015.

“The foreign net buy in the early part of October seemed somewhat tactical, after the ringgit had weakened to a post-Asian Financial Crisis low of RM4.457 to the US dollar on Sept 29.

“Investors subsequently turned cautious ahead of the US Federal Open Market Committee meeting of Oct 27-28, which ended with a statement implying a rate hike in its upcoming Dec 15-16 meeting,” it added.

On the scoreboard, the FBM Emas Index fell 130.93 points to 11,615.24, the FBM Emas Syariah Index declined 97.34 points to 12,524.89 and the FBM Ace Index was 120.27 points lower at 6,388.34. The FBM 70 Index decreased 102.85 points to 12,938.61 and the FBMT100 Index lost 128.77 points to 11,289.58.

Sector-wise, the Finance Index gave up 266.27 points to 14,056.35, the Industrial Index eased 19.50 points to 3,301.35 and the Plantation Index was 107.62 points lower at 7,614.28.

Of the heavyweights, Maybank lost 17 sen to RM8.22, TNB eased four sen to RM13.12 and Public Bank contracted 36 sen to RM17.82, while Axiata fell nine sen to RM6.08.

Among actives, Hibiscus Petroleum and Bumi Armada fell six sen each to 30.5 sen and RM1.05 respectively, while The Media Shoppe was half-a-sen lower at 10 sen. Main Market volume declined to 1.48 billion units worth RM2.15 billion from 2.10 billion units worth RM1.70 billion on Monday.

Turnover on the ACE Market decreased to 468.18 million shares worth RM106.49 million against 588.35 million shares worth RM128.55 million. Warrants rose to 392.91 million units valued at RM50.55 million against 275.97 million units worth RM36.01 million.

Consumer products accounted for 113.12 billion shares traded on the Main Market, industrial products (475.82 million), construction (45.38 million), trade and services (536.60 million), technology (52.88 million), infrastructure (24.41 million), SPAC (36.28 million), finance (52.08 million), hotels (2.02 million), properties (109.97 million), plantations (23.15 million), mining (71,000), REITs (10.58 million), and closed/fund (47,500).