Bursa Malaysia snaps three-day winning streak to end lower

KUALA LUMPUR: Bursa Malaysia snapped its three-day winning streak to end in the red yesterday, dragged by profittaking in selected heavyweight counters, particularly banking stocks.

At 5pm, the FTSE Bursa Malaysia KLCI (FBM KLCI) dropped 10.12 points, or 0.68 per cent, to 1,487.84 from Monday’s close of 1,497.96.

The benchmark index, which opened 0.56 points lower at 1,497.40, moved between 1,482.38 and 1,497.88 throughout the day.

Market breadth was negative with decliners outnumbering advancers 449 to 351, while 449 counters were unchanged, 1,092 untraded, and nine others suspended.

Total turnover was marginally higher at 2.64 billion units worth RM1.74 billion from 2.63 billion units worth RM1.55 billion on Monday.

Rakuten Trade Sdn Bhd vicepresident of Equity Research, Thong Pak Leng said yesterday’s selldown provides more upsides for investors, given the undervalued FBM KLCI.

“As such, we expect the benchmark index to trend higher for the remainder of the week, hovering within the 1,480-1,510 region, with immediate support at 1,480 and resistance at 1,500,” he told Bernama.

Key regional indices closed mostly higher, buoyed by optimism ahead of the release of the United States inflation reading which is expected to have improved in August, he said.

“Nonetheless, gains were limited as investors are cautious on the slowdown in China’s economic activity due to the recent Covid-19 -related restrictions,” said Thong.

Meanwhile, Bursa heavyweights Maybank fell seven sen to RM8.92, Public Bank reduced 10 sen to RM4.52, Petronas Chemicals shed 18 sen to RM8.71, CIMB slid two sen to RM5.45 and IHH Healthcare trimmed one sen to RM6.20.

Of the actives, both Metronic Global and CSH Alliance eased half-a-sen to 2.5 sen and four sen, respectively, while Aimflex improved 2.5 sen to 15.5 sen, Velesto Energy gained 1.5 sen to 11.5 sen and MY E.G advanced two sen to 87.5 sen.

On the index board, the FBM Emas Index declined 57.33 points to 10,598.26, the FBMT 100 Index contracted 59.38 points to 10,340.22, the FBM Emas Shariah Index fell 2.47 points to 10,720.48 and the FBM 70 lost 29.54 points to 12,814.43, but the FBM ACE was 6.53 points higher at 4,900.72.

Sector-wise, the Industrial Products and Services Index eased 1.73 points to 183.45, the Financial Services Index dropped 218.83 points to 16,666.99, while the Plantation Index rose 21.48 points to 6,998.90 and the Energy Index bagged 11.21 points to 727.67.