Bursa Malaysia falls on selling in heavyweights
KUALA LUMPUR: Bursa Malaysia slipped to its lowest level since March 15, 2017 to finish at an intra-day low today on continued selling pressure in heavyweights amid weaker crude oil prices.
The benchmark FTSE Bursa Malaysia KLCI (FBM KLCI) fell 10.62 points, or 0.61 per cent, to 1,722.99 from 1,733.61 on Tuesday.
The index opened 0.29 of-a-point better at 1,733.90 and moved between 1,722.99 and 1,736.40 throughout the day.
On the broader market, losers trounced gainers by 638 to 254, with 379 counters unchanged, 569 untraded and 21 others suspended.
Volume fell to 2.34 billion units worth RM2.28 billion from Tuesday's 2.97 billion units worth RM2.60 billion.
In a note today, Hong Leong Investment Bank Research (HLIB Research) said, Bursa Malaysia tracked the downtrend in Asian equity markets, which were dragged down by the fall in crude oil prices and weaker-than-expected Chinese economic data released yesterday.
Regionally, Japan's Nikkei 225 Index slumped 351.69 points, or 1.57 per cent, to 22,028.32, Hong Kong's Hang Seng dipped 300.43 points, or 1.03 per cent, to 28,851.69 and Singapore's Straits Times Index declined 29.44 points, or 0.87 per cent, to 3,369.65.
HLIB Research said the uninspiring local performance was also affected by the muted 2017 third quarter reporting season and the uncertainly on when the general election would be held.
It has been widely speculated to be between March and May 2018.
Among heavyweights, Maybank fell 13 sen to RM9.21, Petronas Chemicals slipped 15 sen to RM7.25, CIMB and Digi eased nine sen each to RM6.00 and RM4.72 respectively and Maxis was down seven sen to RM5.88.
Of the active counters, Trive Property and Sumatec eased half-a-sen each to 8.5 sen and 5.5 sen, respectively. Hubline increased one sen to 12.5 sen. Berjaya Corp and Borneo Oil were unchanged at 39.5 sen and nine sen, respectively.
Petronas Dagangan led the list of top losers, slipping 64 sen to RM23.08, followed by Petron Malaysia, which fell 42 sen to RM11.84, Heng Yuan eased four sen to RM10.00, Hong Leong Financial gave up 36 sen to RM16.20 and PMB Technology erased 22 sen to RM3.83.
Sector-wise, the Industrial Index gave up 16.08 points to 3,159.67, Finance Index dipped 145.05 points to 16,098.91 while the Plantation Index was 6.06 points higher at 7,915.88.
The FBM Emas Index eased 85.46 points to 12,450.01, FBM Emas Syariah Index fell 88.84 points to 12,898.46, FBMT 100 Index declined 82.88 points to 12,091.06 and the FBM 70 was 136.42 points lower at 15,414.80.
The FBM Ace, however, rose 10.19 points to 6,688.90.
The Main Market volume improved to 2.34 billion units worth RM2.28 billion versus Tuesday's 2.13 billion units worth RM2.44 billion.
Volume on the ACE Market eased to 498.75 million shares valued at RM117.46 million from 577.65 million shares valued at RM128.76 million previously.
Warrants' volume reduced to 233.89 million units worth RM28.83 million from 259.01 million units worth RM29.92 million yesterday.
Consumer products accounted for 83.02 million shares traded on the Main Market, industrial products (308.97 million), construction (92.06 million), trade and services (709.60 million), technology (237.78 million), infrastructure (11.94 million), SPAC (461,000), finance (48.28 million), hotels (870,600), properties (84.82 million), plantations (13.32 million), mining (17,100), REITs (6.23 million), and closed/fund (7,000).
The physical price of gold as at 5pm stood at RM166.85 per gramme, up 88 sen from RM165.97 at 5pm yesterday. — Bernama