Bursa Malaysia ends lower on lower on extended selling

KUALA LUMPUR: Bursa Malaysia ended the week lower yesterday on extended selling activities from yesterday amid the country’s weaker trade data and fears of slower global growth, dealers said.

At 5 pm, the benchmark FTSE Bursa Malaysia KLCI ( FBM KLCI) was down 0.41 per cent or 6.45 points to 1,557.67 from Thursday’s close of 1,564.12.

The index, which opened 0.23 point easier at 1,563.89, moved between 1,551.96 and 1,564.79 throughout the day.

Market breadth was almost balanced with losers pipping gainers 409 to 404, with 390 counters unchanged, 783 untraded and 31 others suspended.

Turnover narrowed to 2.04 billion shares worth RM1.60 billion from 2.17 billion shares valued at RM1.45 billion yesterday.

Inter-Pacific Securities Sdn Bhd head of research Pong Teng Siew said profit-taking continued on the local bourse as investors wanted to square off their position ahead of the weekend and the upcoming Budget 2020 announcement next week.

“Some investors are concerned that the benchmark index cannot hold up to its support level and might plunge further to approach its lowest levels. The local market has dropped substantially in the past three trading days.

“Technically, we would say that today’s downswing was a leftover selling from yesterday, as Malaysia was not doing as bad as other global markets that had experienced a big drop on Thursday,” Pong told Bernama.

He noted that the FBM KLCI’s lowest previous level was on Aug 24, 2015, when it was at 1,532.

The Statistics Department yesterday revealed that Malaysia’s total trade stood at RM151.8 billion in August 2019, lower by RM10.7 billion or 6.6 per cent compared to a year earlier.

Among the heavyweights, Maybank fell four sen to RM8.44, Tenaga declined six sen to RM13.52, Public Bank was flat at RM19.28, PChem dipped 16 sen to RM7.31 and IHH shed two sen to RM5.65.

As for the actives, VSolar eased one sen to 6.5 sen and Sapura Energy gave up half-asen to 26 sen while Armada rose one sen to 33.5 sen.

The FBM Emas Index slipped 28.77 points to 11,048.52, the FBMT 100 Index contracted 32.27 points to 10,874.33 and the FBM Emas Shariah Index was 19.21 points weaker at 11,646.62.

The FBM 70, however, recovered 11.60 points to 13,806.48 but the FBM ACE slid 46.24 points to 4,509.29.

Sector-wise, the Financial Services Index retreated 81.95 points to 14,997.39, the Plantation Index lost 68.30 points to 6,567.98 and the Industrial Products & Services Index was 0.91 of-a-point easier at 151.26.