KL shares end week on lower note, CI down 4.16 points

KUALA LUMPUR: Kuala Lumpur shares ended the week on a lower note with persistent selling in healthcare, mid and small cap stocks, while institutional investors emerged to support index-linked stocks.

At the close, the FTSE Bursa Malaysia KLCI (FBM KLCI) eased 4.16 points to 1,494.64 from Thursday’s close of 1,498.80.

The index opened at 1,499.76 and oscillated between 1,489.83 and 1,502.67 throughout the day.

Due to the market outflow by the mid and small cap stocks, the scoreboard saw decliners trouncing advancers by 894 to 311, while 352 counters were unchanged, 610 untraded and 21 others suspended.

Total volume rose to 6.92 billion units worth RM 4.1 billion from 6.73 billion units worth RM4.6 billion recorded on Thursday.

An analyst said that the market declined yesterday over the uncertainties surrounding both the economic and political developments in the country with retail investors exited the market.

And this is while the country continued to record triple digit Covid-19 new cases daily, she said.

Among the major indices, FBMSCAP went down by 2.16 per cent or 357.42 to 16,180.13 and FBMMCAP declined 2.56 per cent or 353.45 to 13,413.66.

For sectoral indices, the energy index erased 2.02 per cent or 13.99 points to 676.63 while the healthcare index slipped 2.18 per cent or 89.88 points to 4,021.86.

“Market participants will be cautiously awaiting the outcome of the meeting between Prime Minister Tan Sri Muhyiddin Yassin and the Yang di-Pertuan Agong Al-Sultan Abdullah Ri’ayatuddin Al-Mustafa Billah Shah tonight,” she said.

Muhyiddin had earlier chaired the Cabinet meeting in Perdana Putra, Putrajaya, to discuss current issues and government affairs.

Of the 30 index-linked counters, three healthcare counters, namely Hartalega, Top Glove and IHH erased 48 sen, 20 sen and nine sen to RM17.32, RM8.70 and RM5.10 respectively.

Besides these stocks, 14 others stocks were in the red, one ended flat and the remaining counters were higher, led by Genting, RHB and Hap Seng, which gained two sen, three sen and six sen to RM3.02, RM4.30 and RM7.25 respectively.

Of the gainers, F&N jumped 38 sen to RM31.48, MISC added 35 sen to RM6.96 and Public Bank was 28 sen higher at RM15.84.

Leading the top losers were Nestle which erased RM3.20 to RM141.30, Petronas Dagangan dropped 58 sen to RM17.54 and Hartalega lost 48 sen to RM17.32.

As for the actives, Mlabs slipped half-a-sen to two sen while both AT Systematization and Lambo were flat at eight sen and three sen respectively.