Bursa Malaysia ends lower

KUALA LUMPUR: Bursa Malaysia finished lower yesterday, reversing Tuesday’s gains on the back of selling in the finance index-related stocks, as well as cautious sentiment on the implementation of the Intraday short-selling (IDSS) framework.

The benchmark FTSE Bursa Malaysia KLCI (FBM KLCI) settled at 1,879.32, slipping 1.17 points from Tuesday’s close of 1,880.49.

The key index opened 3.5 points better at 1,883.99 this morning and moved between 1,873.11 and 1,884.84 throughout yesterday’s session.

Inter-Pacific Securities Sdn Bhd head of research Pong Teng Siew said the market was still digesting on the IDSS ahead of its implementation and how it would affect small-capitalised stocks.

“Most brokers are still not offering it (IDSS) to their investors as they want to understand how it works.

“Thus, the sentiment weighed on the market performance, on top of profit-taking activities which were anticipated to take place this week following the strong bourse performance last week,” he told Bernama.

He also said external factor such as a steep rise in aluminium price due to the US sanction on Russia’s aluminium producer Rusal had also created an uneasy environment in the market.

“It means that the trade war has worsened, reducing the risk appetite,” he said.

There were 617 losers and 285 gainers, with 384 counters unchanged, 626 untraded and 26 others suspended.

Volume declined to 2.34 billion units worth RM1.97 billion from 3.09 billion units worth RM2.79 billion previously.

Among heavyweights, PBBank added two sen to RM24.0, Maybank and Tenaga erased two sen to RM10.62 and RM15.92, respectively, PChem reduced six sen to RM8.45 and CIMB was unchanged at RM7.30.

Among the losers, KESM dipped RM1.30 to RM16.50, PetronM eased 34 sen to RM8.16, Kossan down 27 sen to RM7.20, BAT erased 26 sen to RM22.74, and MPI fell 24 sen to RM8.36.

The most actively-traded stock was SapNRG gave up four sen to 73 sen, SKH inched down one sen to eight sen, UMWOG down half-a-sen to 29.5 sen, while PUC was flat at 27 sen.

The FBM Emas Index fell 20.56 points to 13,137.20, the FBMT 100 Index lost 15.12 points to 12,940.42.

The FBM Emas Shariah Index plunged 32.88 points to 13,327.07, the FBM 70 dropped 42.38 points to 15,651.01 and the FBM Ace declined 22.31 points to 5,512.38.

Sector-wise, the Finance Index added 22.36 points to 18,371.60, the Plantation Index rose 6.75 points to 8,046.71 but the Industrial Index decreased 3.13 points to 3,237.98.

Main Market volume fell to 1.35 billion shares worth RM1.78 billion from 1.94 billion shares worth RM2.58 billion previously.

Warrants volume eased further on Tuesday to 544.92 million units valued at RM103.88 million from 550.53 million units valued at RM99.51 million.

Volume on the ACE Market also reduced to 436.02 million shares worth RM80.02 million from 591.87 million shares worth RM105.27 million previously.

Consumer products accounted for 50.21 million shares traded on the Main Market, industrial products (301.31 million), construction (50.85 million), trade and services (719.46 million), technology (40.2 million), Infrastructure (30.59 million), SPAC (40.5 million), finance (41.46 million), hotels (4.01 million), properties (42.73 million), plantations (18.79 million), mining (27,200), REITs (12.67 million), and closed/fund (5,000)

For further information on stocks and prices, please visit www.bursamalaysia.com.