Bursa Malaysia ends marginally lower on profittaking activities

KUALA LUMPUR: Bursa Malaysia retreated from its gains to end the week marginally lower, due to profit-taking activities particularly in banking and oil and gas stocks, coupled with the weaker regional market performance, a dealer said.

At 5 pm, the benchmark FTSE Bursa Malaysia KLCI (FBM KLCI) eased 1.97 points to 1,603.05 from 1,605.02 at Thursday’s close.

The index, which opened 3.28 points lower at 1,601.74, moved between 1,599.80 and 1,607.42 throughout the session. The overall market breadth was negative with decliners surpassing gainers 510 to 477, while 427 counters were unchanged, 825 untraded and 11 others suspended.

Total turnover was slightly lower at 3.87 billion units worth RM2.99 billion versus 3.91 billion units worth RM3.34 billion on Thursday. Rakuten Trade Sdn Bhd vice-president of equity research Thong Pak Leng said the local bourse remained above the 1,600 psychological mark despite some intermittent corrections.

“The market undertone remains steady despite the anticipated profit-taking,” he said.

Regionally, key markets trended broadly lower following negative cues overnight from Wall Street amid renewed geopolitical concerns over Ukraine and Russia.

Singapore’s Straits Times Index fell 0.29 per cent to 3,431.55, Hong Kong’s Hang Seng Index lost 1.88 per cent to 24,327.71 and Japan’s Nikkei 225 eased 0.41 per cent to 27,122.07.

Bursa heavyweights Maybank and Public Bank each fell two sen to RM8.66 and RM4.39 respectively, Petronas Chemicals slipped nine sen to RM9.21, IHH Healthcare declined four sen to RM6.55, and CIMB lost three sen to RM5.60.

As for the actives, Ta Win gained three sen to 18.5 sen, Hibiscus Petroleum added four sen to RM1.18, while SMTrack and DGB Asia were unchanged at 24 sen and 2.5 sen, respectively.

On the index board, FBM ACE weakened 41.87 points to 6,294.76, FBM 70 reduced 69.85 points to 13,744.74, FBM Emas Index eased 17.14 points to 11,451.51, FBMT 100 Index gave up 23.09 points to 11,125.15, while FBM Emas Shariah Index added 2.69 points to 12,210.71.

Sector-wise, the Financial Services Index erased 64.94 points to 16,400.68, the Industrial Products and Services Index was 0.15 of-a-point lower at 211.63, while the Plantation Index improved 152.96 points to 8,120.23.

The Main Market volume increased to 2.58 billion shares worth RM2.72 billion from 2.47 billion shares worth RM2.96 billion Thursday.

Warrants turnover improved to 373.25 million units worth RM49.52 million against 362.77 million units worth RM48.26 million previously. — Bernama