Bursa Malaysia ends lower tracking regional bourses
KUALA LUMPUR: Bursa Malaysia ended lower today on persistent selling pressures, tracking the bearish performances of the regional bourses following the Bank of Japan's monetary policy decision.
The benchmark FTSE Bursa Malaysia KLCI (FBM KLCI) dipped 17.58 points to close at 1,674.76 from Wednesday's close of 1,692.34.
It opened 3.64 points weaker at 1,688.70 and moved between 1,671.21 and 1,695.73 throughout the day.
Market breadth was negative with losers leading gainers by 570 to 274 with 332 counters unchanged, 566 counters untraded and 54 others were suspended.
Total volume increased to 1.78 billion shares, worth RM2.31 billion, from Wednesday's 1.72 billion shares valued at RM1.86 billion.
A dealer said most Asian markets were in the red.
The markets trimmed their earlier gains after Bank of Japan decided to keep the monetary policy unchanged against expectations of more stimuli, he said.
Japan's Nikkei 225 gave up 3.61% to 16,666.05 and the Singapore Straits Times Index weakened 0.39% to 2,863.56 while Hong Kong's Hang Seng improved 0.12% to 21,388.03.
Of the heavyweights, Maybank fell five sen to RM8.90, TNB eased 20 sen to RM14.20, Public Bank declined six sen to RM18.70 and IHH declined seven sen to RM6.57.
Petronas Chemicals was flat at RM6.70.
Among active stocks, AirAsia X and its warrants fell one sen each to 34.5 sen and 20 sen, respectively, SapuraKencana declined 13 sen to RM1.64 and Sona Petroleum warrants were flat at half-a-sen.
The FBM Emas Index fell 96.63 points to 11,659.95, FBMT100 Index decreased 96.14 points to 11,357.10 and the FBM Emas Syariah Index dropped 102.42 points to 12,217.53.
The FBM 70 fell 27066 points to 13,029.51 and the FBM Ace slipped 65.81 points to 5,607.16.
Sector-wise, the Finance Index reduced 46.18 points to 14,636.28 and the Industrial Index slipped 25.20 points to 3,207.21.
The Plantation Index improved 9.79 points to 7,712.90.
Main Market turnover was at 1.31 billion units worth RM2.23 billion. Yesterday's volume was at 1.31 billion units worth RM1.8 billion.
The ACE Market turnover rose to 242.31 million shares valued at RM48.24 million, from 223.08 million shares valued at RM41.66 million recorded on Wednesday.
Warrants improved to 224.28 million units worth RM32.57 million from 191.40 million units worth RM25.65 million previously.
Consumer products accounted for 248.28 million shares traded on the Main Market, industrial products (158.14 million), construction (51.01 million), trade and services (531.98 million), technology (50.47 million), infrastructure (13.54 million), SPAC (106.93 million), finance (48.77 million), hotels (1.15 million), properties (79.86 million), plantations (17.89 million), mining (Nil), REITs (6.98 million), and closed/fund (6,600).
The physical price of gold as at 5pm stood at RM152.70 per gramme, up 69 sen from RM151.01 at
5pm yesterday. — Bernama