Bursa Malaysia ends week lower on weak sentiment

KUALA LUMPUR: Bursa Malaysia finished the week lower today as sentiment was dampened by geopolitical tensions between the United States and North Korea with losses seen in selected heavyweights and key blue-chips, dealers said. 
The FTSE Bursa Malaysia KLCI (FBM KLCI) ended at an intra-day low of 1,766.96, down 10.81 points after rising to as high as 1,775.18 at one point.
Losses in Maybank, IHH Healthcare and three telecommunications stocks – Maxis, Axiata and Digi – dragged the composite index down with a combination of 6.494 points.
Maybank and IHH Healthcare gave up nine sen each for RM9.69 and RM5.91 respectively, Maxis fell eight sen to RM5.70, Axiata trimmed seven sen to RM4.80 and Digi contracted 11 sen to RM4.68.
In line with the bearish performance in other regional bourses, the overall market breadth in Bursa Malaysia was negative as losers outnumbered gainers 826 to 148, with 289 counters unchanged, 578 counters untraded and 18 others suspended.
Volume fell to 1.64 billion units worth RM1.89 billion from 1.35 billion units worth RM1.49 billion yesterday. 
An analyst from research firm said the sluggish market sentiment was largely due to the geopolitical tensions between the US and North Korea, which had escalated and continued to affect investors' risk appetite in the global stock markets.
"These make players to turn more cautious and risk averse. But, compared to other regional bourses, especially Hong Kong, we are less volatile because we are far (from both involving parties)," he told Bernama.
He said this bearish environment would only be temporary and Bursa Malaysia would not likely see heavy selling like its regional peers.
Regionally, Hong Kong's Hang Seng dived 2.04 per cent to 26,883,51, South Korea's Kospi dipped 1.69 per cent to 2,319.71, and Singapore's Straits Times plunged 1.33 per cent to 3,279.12.
Japanese stock markets were closed today for a holiday.
Of the heavyweights, Tenaga and Public Bank eased two sen each to RM14.20 and RM20.58 respectively, while both Sime Darby and Petronas Chemicals fell one sen each to RM9.41 and RM7.02 respectively.
CIMB, however, gained two sen to RM6.80.
Among actives, Dagang Nexchange fell 2.5 sen to 45 sen, Frontken declined two sen to 30.5 sen, Jag inched down half-a-sen to 14 sen and Inari decreased five sen to RM2.35.
The FBM Emas Index was 102.98 points lower at 12,502.44, FBMT 100 Index declined 93.4 points to 12,175.92, FBM Emas Syariah Index fell 117.72 points to 12,612.47, FBM 70 plunged 184.31 points to 14,693.55 and the FBM Ace contracted 123.5 points to 6,308.78.
Sector-wise, the Finance Index lost 112.25 points to 16,717.86, Industrial Index shed 14.41 points to 3,234.1 and the Plantation Index declined by 42.1 points to 7,789.85.
The Main Market volume increased to 1.08 billion shares worth RM1.77 billion from 838.85 million shares worth RM1.39 billion on Thursday.
Volume on the ACE Market declined to 338.66 million units valued at RM88.54 million from 343.84 million units valued at RM75.23 million yesterday.
Warrants widened to 205.59 million shares worth RM31.09 million from 158.24 million shares worth RM23.27 million previously.
Consumer products accounted for 54.55 million shares traded on the Main Market, industrial products (282.03 million), construction (82.93 million), trade and services (391.12 million), technology (70.23 million), infrastructure (5.76 million), SPAC (6.09 million), finance (65.03 million), hotels (2.12 million), properties .(100.56 million), plantations (13.53 million), mining (16,000), REITs (10.73 million) and closed/fund (34,000).
The physical price of gold as at 5pm stood at RM172.03 per gramme, up RM1.43  from RM170.60 at 5pm yesterday. — Bernama