Bursa Malaysia closes lower
KUALA LUMPUR: Bursa Malaysia closed lower today, as investors reduced their exposure to riskier assets ahead of the 14th General Election (GE14).
The benchmark FTSE Bursa Malaysia KLCI (FBM KLCI) finished 13.63 points, or 0.74% lower, at 1,828.20 from last Friday's close of 1,841.83.
It opened 0.73 of-a-point better at 1,842.56 and moved between 1,821.79 and 1,842.56 throughout the day.
On the broader market, losers trounced gainers 750 to 187, while 362 counters were unchanged, 562 untraded and 15 others suspended.
Volume, however, improved to 1.92 billion units worth RM2.09 billion from 1.61 billion units, valued at RM2.12 billion previously.
Hong Leong Investment Bank Analyst Loui Low Ley Yee said typically, most of the market participants would refrain from buying shares as the general election was drawing closer, pending its outcome.
"Based on the foreign fund outflows from Bursa Malaysia last week, it indicated that investors, be it the foreign institutional investors or retailers, were selling their shares.
"The local institutions were the only buyers that we could see," he told Bernama.
According to MIDF Research's fund flow report released today, foreign investors had withdrawn up to RM438.4 million from the local bourse last week.
MIDF was reported as saying that tracing back to the penultimate week before the 13th General Election (GE13), foreign investors snapped up RM750.4 million net of local equities.
"Foreign attrition was only seen on the last trading day before GE13 which only amounted to RM91.7 million net outflow," it said.
Of the heavyweights, Maybank and Tenaga lost eight sen each to RM10.54 and RM16.00, respectively, Public Bank declined 10 sen to RM23.70, Petronas Chemicals down one sen to RM8.44 and CIMB was RM1.00 weaker at RM6.67.
For actives, Borneo Oil was unchanged at eight sen, Sapura Energy inched down 1.5 sen to 64 sen, Nexgram and Sumatec shed half-a-sen each to six sen and four sen, respectively, while Hibiscus Petroleum gained 3.5 sen to 82.5 sen.
Among losers, Nestle dipped 70 sen to RM135.10, BAT fell 54 sen to RM22.46, Dutch Lady trimmed 46 sen to RM66.50, Petronas Dagangan was 40 sen lower at RM26.40, and Panasonic Manufacturing contracted 36 sen to RM34.74.
The FBM Emas Index retreated 106.28 points to 12,753.01, the FBMT 100 Index decreased 101.13 points to 12,568.21, the FBM Emas Syariah Index slumped 116.79 points to 12,970.65, the FBM Ace dipped 115.64 points to 5,112.53, and the FBM 70 lost 147.32 points to 15,131.56.
Sector-wise, the Industrial Index slipped 20.77 points to 3,184.26, the Finance Index was 155.80 points lower at 17,793.58, and the Plantation Index gave up 63.83 points to 7,841.88.
Main Market volume rose to 1.06 billion shares valued at RM1.93 billion versus 912.61 million shares worth RM1.97 billion last Friday.
Warrants volume increased to 583.01 million units valued at RM115.70 million from 503.89 million units worth RM113.31 million.
Volume on the ACE Market surged to 269.0 million shares worth RM41.52 million against 185.23 million shares worth RM36.06 million previously.
Consumer products accounted for 50.59 million shares traded on the Main Market, industrial products (174.59 million), construction (55.52 million), trade and services (565.50 million), technology (40.41 million), infrastructure (8.17 million), SPAC (19.65 million), finance (56.75 million), hotels (1.13 million), properties (64.44 million), plantations (29.37 million), mining (25,200), REITs (3.55 million), and closed/fund (2,700).
The physical price of gold as at 5pm stood at RM161.07 per gramme, up 67 sen from RM160.40 at 5pm last Friday. — Bernama