Bursa Malaysia ends on mixed note
KUALA LUMPUR: Bursa Malaysia closed on a mixed note today, with the benchmark index ending higher on persistent buying interest in selected heavyweights.
A dealer said today's trading was also in line with the mixed performance of regional peers.
At 5pm, the FTSE Bursa Malaysia KLCI (FBM KLCI) closed 4.66 points or 0.25% higher from Wednesday's close of 1,856.20.
The benchmark index opened 3.64 points lower at 1,852.56 and moved between 1,851.51 and 1,862.81 throughout the day.
Market breadth was negative as losers led gainers 648 to 341 with 390 counters unchanged, 450 untraded and 20 others suspended.
Volume advanced to 3.39 billion units worth RM2.51 billion versus 2.95 billion units worth RM3.64 billion yesterday.
The dealer said buying interest in blue chip stocks was prompted by decent corporate results announced by a number of large companies recently.
"However, with losers outpacing gainers on Bursa Malaysia, it shows that many investors remained cautious over the recent Federal Reserve Chair's hawkish monetary policy remarks.
"The worries were in tandem with the gloomy global sentiment, reflected in the sharp overnight fall on Wall Street," he added.
Regionally, Japan's Nikkei dipped 343.77 points or 1.56% to 21,724.47, Singapore's Straits Times fell 8.54 points or 0.24% to 3,509.40, while Hong Kong's Hang Seng gained 199.53 points or 0.65% to 31,044.25.
Of the heavyweights, Genting rose 27 sen to RM9.12, Sime Darby Plantation added 15 sen to RM5.50, IHH gained nine sen to RM6.00, CIMB went up eight sen to RM7.27 and PPB was 36 sen better at RM18.06.
Among the active counters, HB Global ticked up 20 sen to 28 sen, Maxwell put on half-a-sen to 2.5 sen, while Daya Materials lost three sen to four sen, with Sumatec and Sino Hua-An easing one sen each to seven sen and 54 sen respectively.
Panasonic led the top gainers list in rising RM1.18 to RM34.88, while the top loser was Nestle, slumping RM5.00 to RM123.10.
The physical price of gold as at 5pm stood at RM160.04 per gramme, down 65 sen from RM160.69 at 5pm yesterday.
The FBM Emas Index bagged 19.00 points at 13,237.25, the FBMT 100 Index added 28.29 points to 12,951.05, the FBM Emas Syariah Index was 5.21 points higher at 13,432.72 and the FBM 70 gained 21.22 points to 16,135.72.
The FBM Ace, however, declined 42.69 points to 6,164.15.
Sector-wise, the Plantation Index surged 92.49 points to 8,083.96, the Industrial Index advanced 2.20 points to 3,230.21, but the Finance Index slid by 40.00 points to 18,223.10.
The Main Market volume increased to 2.22 billion units worth RM2.34 billion from 2.02 billion units worth RM3.46 billion on Wednesday.
Volume on the ACE Market was more than double at 672.33 million shares valued at RM88.52 million against 334.03 million shares worth RM59.39 million.
Warrants' volume, however, was lower at 494.96 million units worth RM77.90 million versus Wednesday's 592.40 million units valued at RM117.27 million.
Consumer products accounted for 580.04 million shares traded on the Main Market, industrial products (424.65 million), construction (53.00 million), trade and services (852.70 million), technology (47.25 million), infrastructure (11.81 million), SPAC (1.92 million), finance (79.20 million), hotels (999,200), properties (131.39 million), plantations (23.93 million), mining (1.09 million), REITs (9.86 million), and closed/fund (10,000). — Bernama