Bursa Malaysia ends lower for 4th straight day

KUALA LUMPUR: Bursa Malaysia ended lower for the fourth consecutive day today, with selling pressure across-the-board and in tandem with the weaker performance of regional bourses, dealers said.
The benchmark FTSE Bursa Malaysia KLCI (FBM KLCI) ended at 1,851.93, down 13.41 points from Tuesday's close of 1,865.34.
It opened 1.86 points easier at 1,863.48 and moved between 1,850.28 and 1,863.75 throughout the day.
Market breadth was negative with losers outpacing gainers by 680 to 219 while 350 counters remained unchanged, 663 untraded and 30 others suspended.
Volume fell to 1.87 billion units worth RM1.97 billion from 1.93 billion units worth RM2.32 billion yesterday.
A dealer said Asian equities fell today, taking cue from the sell-off on Wall Street on fears about slowing growth and falling corporate earnings.
"US equities fell overnight as concerns over the profit outlook from bellwether US companies and worries about rising bond yields crossing three per cent as well as their impact on inflation, have dampened investor sentiment," he said.
Bursa Malaysia traded in the red throughout the session, on an extended profit-taking correction, alongside the absence of local catalysts ahead of Malaysia's 14th General Election.
Regionally, Japan's Nikkei slipped 0.28% to 22,215.32, Hong Kong's Hang Seng fell 1.01% to 30,327.77, South Korea's Kospi declined 0.62% to 2,448.81 and Singapore's Straits Times Index was 0.50% lower at 3,566.61.
Among heavyweights, Maybank and Tenaga slid four sen each to RM10.58 and RM15.84 respectively, Public Bank fell 26 sen to RM23.84, Petronas Chemicals lost 10 sen to RM8.39 and CIMB shed five sen to RM7.17.
As for actives, Sapura Energy shed four sen to 66.5 sen, PUC slid 1.5 sen to 20.5 sen, Hibiscus fell 2.5 sen to 80 sen, Nexgram added one sen to seven sen while Borneo Oil was flat at eight sen.
The FBM Emas Index was 116.23 points lower at 12,858.18, the FBMT 100 Index fell 114.75 points to 12,675.84 and the FBM Emas Shariah Index slipped 131.99 points to 12,999.71.
The FBM 70 lost 215.46 points to 15,070.78 and the FBM Ace shed 69.77 points for 5,252.69.
Sector-wise, the Industrial Index slid 5.40 points to 3,206.39, the Plantation Index fell 37.52 points to 7,954.44 and the Finance Index declined 129.58 points to 18,175.46.
Main Market volume fell to 1.06 billion shares worth RM1.84 billion from 1.18 billion shares worth RM2.19 billion on Tuesday.
Warrants volume widened to 533.38 million units valued at RM88.64 million from 458.49 million units valued at RM78.33 million yesterday.
Volume on the ACE Market shrank to 279.99 million shares worth RM38.92 million from 284.65 million shares worth RM50.37 million on Tuesday.
Consumer products accounted for 44.47 million shares traded on the Main Market, industrial products (259.72 million), construction (68.35 million), trade and services (472.20 million), technology (63.68 million), infrastructure (14.63 million), SPAC (6.88 million), finance (37.26 million), hotels (7.72 million), properties (55.96 million), plantations (22.32 million), mining (64,800), REITs (4.58 million) and closed/fund (nil).
The physical price of gold as at 5.00pm stood at RM161.15 per gramme, down nine sen from RM161.24 at 5.00pm yesterday. — Bernama