Bursa Malaysia ends lower
Bursa Malaysia end lower yesterday but managed to recover some lost ground from earlier losses, supported by mild bargainhunting in consumer product counters, amidst better sentiment on regional markets.
The benchmark FTSE Bursa Malaysia KLCI (FBM KLCI) slipped 4.20 points or 0.28 per cent to end the day at 1,507.04 from Monday’s close of 1,511.24.
The index opened 0.09 ofa-point weaker at 1,511.15 and moved between 1,492.32 and 1,511.54 throughout the trading session.
Overall market breadth was negative with losers outpacing gainers 522 to 423, while 446 counters were unchanged, 541 untraded and 19 others suspended.
Total volume was higher at 8.75 billion shares worth RM2.98 billion from Monday’s 6.33 billion shares worth RM3.11 billion.
A dealer said the Asian markets were in a volatile mode yesterday after White House trade adviser Peter Navarro commented that the trade deal with China was “over”, thus reversing early morning gains and putting investors into cautious mode.
The statement, linking the breakdown in part to Washington’s anger over Beijing for not sounding the alarm earlier about the Covid19 outbreak, prompted a selloff across the equities markets.
However, the dealer said sentiment quickly recovered when Navarro claimed that his remarks had been taken out of context.
US President Donald Trump had also soothed the nerves when he tweeted: “China trade deal is fully intact. Hopefully they will continue to live up to the terms of the agreement.”
On the local bourse, among heavyweights Maybank slipped one sen to RM7.65, Public Bank erased 38 sen to RM16.40, IHH Healthcare declined nine sen to RM5.43 while TNB rose 10 sen to RM11.08 and Petronas Chemicals improved 16 sen to RM6.43.
Of the most actives, Trive Property earned half-a-sen to one sen, Vivocom Intl and Iris Corp added one sen each to 3.5 sen and 18.5 sen, respectively, but AT Systematization fell 1.5 sen to 11 sen.
On the index board, the FBM Emas Index shed 24.40 points to 10,591.57, the FBMT 100 Index went down 25.40 points to 10,441.83, while the FBM 70 was 16.78 points weaker at 12,922.38.
The FBM Emas Shariah Index increased 14.99 points to 12,024.99 and the FBM ACE jumped 154.18 points to 6,282.64.
Sector-wise, the Industrial Products and Services Index perked up 1.24 points to 136.09, the Plantation Index declined 12.20 points to 6,734.54 and the Financial Services Index lost 141.70 points to 12,872.52.
Main Market volume widened to 4.81 billion shares worth RM2.35 billion from 3.15 billion shares worth RM2.32 billion on Monday.