Bursa Malaysia bucks regional trend, CI ends at intraday low

KUALA LUMPUR: Bursa Malaysia bucked the regional trend to end the week marginally lower, with the key index falling 0.02 per cent, dragged down by selling in selected heavyweights led by Petronas Gas Bhd and Public Bank Bhd.

Petronas Gas shed 56 sen to RM16.80 and Public Bank dipped five sen to RM4.52. Both stocks contributed a combined 3.596 points to the loss in the composite index. At 5 pm, the FTSE Bursa Malaysia KLCI (FBM KLCI) eased 0.29 of-a-point to 1,549.12, to mark its intraday low, from Thursday’s close of 1,549.41.

The benchmark index, which opened 2.97 points higher at 1,552.38, remained in the positive territory for most part of the day and hit an intraday high of 1,558.51 in the morning session before succumbing to selling pressure in late trading.

Market breadth was positive with advancers outpacing decliners 593 to 318, while 417 counters were unchanged, 953 untraded, and 22 others suspended. Total turnover dwindled to 2.39 billion units worth RM1.99 billion from 2.69 billion units worth RM2.23 billion on Thursday.

Rakuten Trade Sdn Bhd vicepresident of equity research Thong Pak Leng said the FBM KLCI erased earlier gains to close flattish as investors took profits during the final minutes of trading.

“Key regional indices trended higher despite the broadly negative cues from Wall Street overnight as the People’s Bank of China preferred to stick to its prudent monetary policy by cutting a key interest rate. On the domestic front, we are cautiously optimistic although there’s improvement in the regional market sentiment,” he told Bernama.

Regionally, Singapore’s Straits Times Index went up 1.65 per cent to 3,243.47, Japan’s Nikkei 225 rose 1.27 per cent to 26,739.03, Hong Kong’s Hang Seng surged 2.96 per cent to 20,717.24, South Korea’s Kospi increased 1.81 per cent to 2,639.29, while China’s SSE Composite Index improved 1.60 per cent to 3,146.57.

Among the heavyweights, Maybank and CIMB shed two sen each to RM8.96 and RM5.02 respectively, while Public Bank and IHH Healthcare fell five sen each to RM4.52 and RM6.53 respectively, and Petronas Chemicals erased three sen to RM9.99. Of the actives, Serba Dinamik decreased one sen to 13.5 sen, MNC Wireless inched down half-a-sen to two sen, while KNM gained 2.5 sen to 20 sen, Sapura Energy perked up half-a-sen to seven sen, and Techna-X was flat at 5.5 sen.

Among the top gainers, Hong Leong Financial improved 40 sen to RM19.50, Kobay Technology put on 31 sen to RM3.51, Sam Engineering bagged 25 sen to RM4.40, Sarawak Oil Palms climbed 22 sen to RM5.94 and Transocean rose 21 sen to RM2.60. — Bernama