Bursa Malaysia ends 2.22 pct lower

KUALA LUMPUR: Bursa Malaysia ended the first trading day in May sharply lower by 2.22 per cent on weaker sentiment due to rising US-China trade war and low factory activity in April.

At the close, the key index, FTSE Bursa Malaysia KLCI (FBM KLCI), fell 31.19 points to 1,376.59, a er moving between 1,375.39 and 1,388.83 throughout the day. The index opened 18.95 points easier at 1,388.83.

Market breadth was negative as losers thumped gainers by 597 to 284, while 356 counters were unchanged, 632 untraded and 17 others suspended.

Turnover eased to 5.47 billion units worth RM2.48 billion from Friday’s 5.85 billion units worth RM3.34 billion.

Factory activity across several Asian countries slumped to new lows in April.

The headline IHS Markit Malaysia Manufacturing Purchasing Managers’ Index (PMI) fell sharply to 31.3 in April 2020 from 48.4 in March 2020, as the manufacturing sector came under heavy pressure due to measures implemented to tackle the Covid-19 pandemic.

OANDA senior market analyst, Asia Pacific, Jeffrey Halley said more anti-China rhetorics from Washington DC over the weekend and this morning, along with nightmarish manufacturing PMI across Asia, had prompted equities to fall deep into the red.

He added that developing markets will remain on the back foot as the week begins.

“That stress will be more noticeable in markets with a high resource component like Malaysia. Trade concerns, pandemic concerns and the knock-on to highly trade-dependent countries like Malaysia mean that (I expect) the FBM KLCI will be under pressure all of this week,” he told Bernama.

Halley said Bursa Malaysia could test its support levels of 1,360 and 1,320 this week.

Among heavyweights, Maybank trimmed 19 sen to RM7.38, TNB slipped 12 sen to RM12.12, Public Bank gave up 52 sen to RM15.86, IHH Healthcare declined 10 sen to RM5.15, Petronas Chemicals and Maxis went down 20 sen each to RM5.40 and RM5.28, respectively, while Axiata fell 15 sen to RM3.79.

As for the actives, Ucrest jumped seven sen to 16.5 sen, Ageson gained three sen to 16 sen, Careplus increased eight sen to 53.5 sen, Key Asic added 2.5 sen to eight sen, Netx and Lambo were flat at one sen and 1.5 sen, respectively, while Key Alliance fell one sen to 8.5 sen.

On the index board, the FBM Emas Index was 169.71 points easier at 9,638.87, the FBMT 100 Index decreased 169.93 points to 9,507.28, the FBM Emas Shariah Index shed 169.89 points to 10,720.25, the FBM ACE put on 18.11 points to 4,776.00 while the FBM 70 slid 20.76 points to 11,639.47.

Sector-wise, the Financial Services Index dipped 243.5 points to 12,229.41, the Industrial Products and Services Index inched down 2.16 points to 118.28, while the Plantation Index slipped 137.31 points to 6,223.71.