Bursa Malaysia ends lower

KUALA LUMPUR: Bursa Malaysia ended lower yesterday as investors wound down their holdings in the local market in response to weak corporate results in sectors such as property.

At 5 pm, the FT SE Bursa Malaysia KLCI (FBM KLCI) ended 5.55 points or 0.32 per cent easier at 1,713.45 against Tuesday’s close of 1,719.

The benchmark index opened 1.86 points easier at 1,717.14. It moved between 1,709.3 and 1,717.59 throughout the day.

Inter-Pacific Securities Sdn Bhd head of research Pong Teng Siew said other sectors such as banking, however, did outperform in terms of financial performance.

“Investors are finding it hard to pin the proxy in the market moving forward,” he told Bernama.

Meanwhile, Phillip Capital Management senior vice president (investment) Datuk Dr Nazri Khan said despite facing some resistance below the downtrend line, the FBM KLCI remained encouraging above the immediate support at around 1,700 points.

“As long as the index does not fall below the strong 1,600-point support, we believe that the current bullish bias remains in play. Should the FBM KLCI breach above the downtrend line, we may see the next resistance at around 1,730 points,” he said.

Market breadth was negative with 481 losers to 364 gainers while 382 counters remained unchanged, 666 untraded and 69 others suspended.

Total volume was lower at 2.19 billion units, valued at RM2.07 billion, versus Tuesday’s 2.63 billion units worth RM2.21 billion.

Among Bursa Malaysia’s heavyweights, Maybank rose three sen to RM9.58, TNB and Petronas Chemicals increased four sen to RM13.48 and RM9.29, respectively, while Public Bank and Hong Leong Bank were flat at RM25.06 and RM21.30.

CI MB trim med two sen to RM 5.86, IHH Healthcare declined four sen to RM5.66 and Maxis shed one sen to RM5.42.

Of actives, Sapura Energy edged up half-a-sen to 31 sen, Dayang Enterprise rose 3.5 sen to RM1, while Bumi Armada, Seacera and Inix Technologies were flat at 19 sen, 34.5 sen and 10 sen, respectively.

Meanwhile, SP Setia erased nine sen to RM2.48, after recording a lower net profit of RM670.95 million for the financial year ended Dec 31, 2018, compared with RM993.70 million in the preceding year.

The FBM Emas Index decreased 46.71 points to 11,910.7, the FBMT 100 Index fell 47 points to 11,755.86 and the FBM Emas Shariah Index depreciated 59.23 points to 11,820.95.

The FBM 70 erased 93.29 points to 14,198.74 but the FBM Ace Index advanced 56.45 points to 4,690.22.

Sector-wise, the Financial Services Index fell 9.94 points to 17,868.53 and the Plantation Index gave up 101.68 points to 7,279.2, but the Industrial Products and Services Index inched up 0.45 of-a-point to 169.09.

Main Market volume was lower at 1.41 billion shares, valued at RM1.89 billion, against 1.90 billion shares valued at RM2.04 billion on Tuesday.

Warrants’ turnover rose to 484.68 million units, worth RM108.07 million, from 465.20 million units valued at RM100.30 million previously.

Volume on the ACE Market increased to 287.90 million shares, worth RM74.64 million, from 261.74 million shares worth RM65.49 million recorded on Tuesday.

Consumer products and services accounted for 204.56 million shares traded on the Main Market, industrial products and services (284.78 million), construction (125.39 million), technology (111.36 million), SPAC (nil), financial services (56.48 million), property (92.78 million), plantations (31.15 million), REITs (9.26 million), closed/fund (1,000), energy (330.10 million), healthcare (33.51 million ), telecommunications and media (48.34 million), transportation and logistics (60.25 million) and utilities (23.88 million).

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