Bursa Malaysia ends lower on continued selling in heavyweights

KUALA LUMPUR: Bursa Malaysia ended lower today on continued selling in selective heavyweights, dealers said.

As at 5pm, the benchmark FTSE Bursa Malaysia KLCI (FBM KLCI) slipped 4.08 points to close at 1,817.13, after moving between 1,812.35 and 1,825.33 points throughout the day.

MISC and Astro Malaysia were the top losers among the blue-chips, declining 22 sen and 14 sen each to RM8.20 and RM3.13, respectively.

Regionally, most of the Asian stock markets were traded higher, as investors reacted positively to the People's Bank of China's move to lower the one-year deposit rate by 25 basis points to 2.5 per cent and the one-year lending rate to 5.35%.

On the broader market, losers outpaced gainers by 617 to 313 with 260 counters unchanged, 555 counters untraded and 11 others suspended.

Total volume rose to 2.25 billion shares worth RM2.19 billion from 2.21 billion shares worth RM2.73 billion on Friday.

The FBM Emas Index dipped 52.55 points to 12,504.83 and FBMT100 Index fell 46.22 points to 12,187.73.

The FBM Emas Shariah Index was 49.38 points easier at 13,072.25.

The FBM 70 dropped 123.77 points to 13,482.50 and the FBM Ace slipped 5.29 points to 6,629.45.

On a sectoral basis, the Industrial Index fell 19.73 points to 3,302.78 and the Plantation Index trimmed 47.05 points to 7,962.62.

The Finance Index surged 40.94 points to 16,030.02, but of the actively-traded stocks, Wintoni rose 4.5 sen to 24.5 sen and Privasia added five sen to 20.5 sen. Nexgram and Hubline were flat at 10.5 sen and 2.5 sen, respectively.

In heavyweights, Maybank ended flat at RM9.20, TNB and Axiata lost six sen each to RM14.66 and RM7.10, respectively, while Public Bank jumped 18 sen to RM18.50.

The Main Market volume rose to 1.31 billion units worth RM2.04 billion from 1.30 billion units worth RM2.57 billion on Friday.

Turnover on the ACE Market surged to 838.88 million shares valued at RM140.64 million from 800.53 million shares valued at RM137.53 million previously.

Warrants declined to 97.84 million units worth RM17.85 million from 109.60 million units worth RM17.47 million on Friday.

Consumer products accounted for 126.27 million shares traded on the Main Market, industrial products (190.25 million), construction (110.96 million), trade and services (552.64 million), technology (118.70 million), infrastructure (21.99 million), SPAC (10.87 million), finance (46.90 million), hotels (6.82 million), properties (90.92 million), plantations (23.15 million), mining (51,300), REITs (6.62 million) and closed/fund (3,900).
The physical price of gold as at 5pm stood at RM137.57 per gramme, up RM2.49 from RM135.08 at 5pm last Friday. – Bernama