Market extends losses to close lower

BURSA Malaysia extended Monday’s losses to finish lower yesterday as investors stayed on the sidelines to await fresh leads amid the reporting season month.

Hong Leong Investment Bank research analyst Loui Low Ley Yee, said the investors were also cautious ahead of the announcement of Malaysia’s third-quarter gross domestic product on Friday.

At 5pm, the FBM KLCI fell 3.88 points, or 0.22%, to close at 1,733.61.

Market breadth was negative with losers outpacing gainers by 588 to 300, with 407 counters unchanged, 545 untraded and 20 others suspended.

Aside from the wait-and-see attitude adopted by the investors, Low said, the barometer index was also dragged down by the oil and gas-related counters due to the fall in crude oil prices.

For other heavyweights, Genting Bhd gave up 27 sen to RM9.08, Genting Malaysia declined 11 sen to RM4.94 and IOI Corp was six sen lower at RM4.36.

Among active counters, Sumatec added one sen to six sen while its warrant was flat at 2.5 sen. Berjaya Corp gained 2.5 sen to 39.5 sen, Trive Property eased half-a-sen to nine sen while DGSB was unchanged at nine sen.

Sector-wise, the Industrial Index gave up 16.15 points to 3,175.75 and the Plantation Index was 45.84 points lower at 7,909.82.

Volume on the ACE Market eased to 577.65 million shares valued at RM128.76 million from 843.76 million shares valued at RM177.36 million previously. – Bernama