Volume index of wholesale, retail trade down 6.2 pct

Bursa M’sia rises 0.8 pct at close, tracking global stock markets

KUALA LUMPUR: Bursa Malaysia ended in positive territory with the market bellwether rising 0.8 per cent Tuesday, in sync with most regional peers, taking cue from the rally on Wall Street which reached an all-time closing high overnight.

At 5 pm, the benchmark FTSE Bursa Malaysia KLCI (FBM KLCI) advanced 12.80 points to 1,586.13 compared with 1,573.33 at Monday’s close.

The index opened 1.34 points higher at 1,574.67 and moved between 1,574.23 and 1,588.96 throughout the day.

Bank Islam Malaysia Bhd economist Adam Mohamed Rahim said the upbeat sentiment on Tuesday was also driven by oil price which hit 13-month high, helped by rising optimism in demand.

At the time of writing, global benchmark Brent Crude rose 0.4 per cent to US$60.80 a barrel while the West Texas Intermediate gained 0.26 per cent to US$58.12 per barrel.

“The moves by governments and central banks to continue massive spending and easing monetary policies until officials are certain that their economies will recover from the coronavirus pandemic have also led to expectations about an increase in inflation which coincides with economic growth,” he told Bernama.

Regionally, Japan’s Nikkei 225 rose 0.40 per cent to 29,505.93, Hong Kong’s Hang Seng Index was up 0.53 per cent at 29,476.19 while Singapore’s Straits Times Index perked up 0.13 per cent to 2,935.27.

Among the 30 index-linked stocks, gains were seen across the board for banking counters amid anticipation the US stimulus measures which may trickle down to Malaysia’s economy pushed up the Bursa Malaysia Financial services index by 1.3 per cent, making it the biggest winner of the day.

He further added that glove counters continued to take a beating as retailers faced difficulty in sustaining their buying activity a er the Bursabets movement was made taking inspiration from what happened to gamestop in the US.

Market breadth was positive with advancers outpacing decliners 585 to 581, while 429 counters were unchanged, 552 untraded and 12 others suspended.

Total volume rose to 7.18 billion units worth RM4.71 billion from 7.04 billion units worth RM4.50 billion recorded at Monday’s close.

Meanwhile, among the heavyweights, Maybank added 12 sen to RM7.95, PBBank gained six sen to RM4.14, PChem bagged seven sen to RM7.56, Tenaga rose three sen to RM9.70 but Topglove shed seven sen to RM6.20.

Of the actives, DNEX and its warrant both lost one sen to 36 sen and 5.5 sen respectively, IRIS climbed two sen to 38.5 sen, Opcom surged 22.5 sen to 78 sen, while EAH and SAPNRG were both flat at 3.5 sen and 12.5 sen, respectively.

Among top gainers, MPI jumped 76 sen to RM36.90, PMetal rose 41 sen to RM8.65 and PetDag advanced 30 sen to RM19.64.

KUALA LUMPUR: Malaysia’s volume index of wholesale and retail trade declined 6.2 per cent in 2020, said the Department of Statistics Malaysia (DoSM).

For the fourth quarter of 2020 (4Q20), the volume index of wholesale and retail trade grew 1.4 per cent to 31.2 points compared with third quarter of 2020 (Q3 2020), according to Chief statistician Datuk Seri Dr Mohd Uzir Mahidin.

On a year-on-year comparison, volume index contraction slowed to -1.2 per cent from -2.0 per cent in Q3 2020.

As for the performance across sub-sectors, he said the volume index of motor vehicles contracted 6.1 per cent in 4Q20 as against the previous quarter.

“This fall was dragged down by sales of motor vehicles, which slipped 9.4 per cent, followed by maintenance and repair of motor vehicles which fell 7.0 per cent.

“Sales of motor vehicle parts and accessories also recorded a negative growth of 2.6 per cent,” he said in a statement yesterday.

On the other hand, sales, maintenance, and repair of motorcycles edged up 0.6 per cent within the same period.

The performance of this

This fall was dragged down by sales of motor vehicles, which slipped 9.4 per cent, followed by maintenance and repair of motor vehicles which fell 7.0 per cent. Datuk Seri Mohd Uzir Mahidin

sub-sector grew 11.5 per cent compared with the same quarter of the previous year.

Commenting further, Mohd Uzir said the volume index of retail trade recorded a 1.4 per cent growth from the previous quarter, pushed up by retail sale of cultural and recreation goods which saw a 10.8 per cent growth.

This was followed by retail sale not in stores, stalls or market which registered 9.2 per cent, and retail sale in stalls and market of 5.6 per cent.

For year-on-year comparison, the volume index of this sub-sector contracted by 2.9 per cent.

Mohd Uzir said the volume index of wholesale trade subsector was also on the positive track to record 3.5 per cent growth in 4Q20 compared with Q3 2020, due to other specialised wholesale and wholesale of household goods, which registered 9.8 per cent and 4.6 per cent respectively.

For year-on-year growth, the volume index of wholesale trade dipped 0.4 per cent.

“The seasonally adjusted volume index of wholesale and retail trade rose 1.3 per cent as against Q3 2020. This growth was underpinned by wholesale trade of 4.0 per cent and retail trade which advanced 0.2 per cent.

“Contrarily, motor vehicles decreased 2.9 per cent compared with the previous quarter,” he added.

Meanwhile, Mohd Uzir said following the implementation of the Movement Control Order announced by the Prime Minister Tan Sri Muhyiddin Yassin on Jan 11, the second phase of Malaysia Population and Housing Census 2020 via face-to-face interview will be rescheduled.

“Therefore, people who have not yet completed the census can take the opportunity to fill in the online census (e-Census) which has been reopened,” he said. — Bernama