Bursa Malaysia ends at over 15-month low

KUALA LUMPUR: Bursa Malaysia gave up earlier gains to slip into the red in late trade, closing at over 15-month low on last-minute selling.
A dealer said the market benchmark ended at its intra-day low for the second consecutive day today, as bargain hunters and investors who entered the market in the earlier sessions took profit, pressuring the local bourse to suffer further losses at the close.
The key FTSE Bursa Malaysia KLCI (FBM KLCI) lost 5.61 points, or 0.32% to finish at 1,709.75, the weakest level since March 3, 2017, when it ended at 1,708.38.
The index opened 4.30 points higher at 1,719.66 from Tuesday's close of 1,715.36 and moved between 1,709.75 and 1,728.69 throughout the day.
Market breadth, however, was positive with gainers outpacing losers 439 to 356, while 407 counters unchanged, 1,911 untraded and 24 others suspended.
Turnover stood at 1.84 billion shares worth RM2.21 billion.
The dealer, however, said the bearish performance on Bursa Malaysia bucked the regional trend which rebounded from yesterday's losses due to China policy easing.
He said news that China's central bank had suggested to cut banks' reserve requirement ratios to help ease their burdens had lifted most of the regional markets' performance.
Regionally, Japan's Nikkei rose 276.95 points or 1.24% to 22,555.43 points, Hong Kong's Hang Seng gained 228.02 points or 0.77% to 29,696.17 and Singapore's Straits Times increased 14.55 points or 0.44% to 3,315.90.
Heavyweights Public Bank, which accounted for 4.01 points to the CI decline, dropped 58 sen to RM22.78, while KLK, which contributed 1.44 points to the loss in the CI, lost 76 sen to RM23.54.
KLK and Public Bank were today's second and third biggest losers respectively after Nestle, which erased 80 sen to RM146.20.
For other heavyweights, IHH Healthcare and Maxis gave up eight sen each to RM5.88 and RM5.57, respectively, while IOI Corp shed nine sen to RM4.57.
Sapura Energy was the most actively traded stock today, rising 2.5 sen to 62.5 sen, followed by Main Market debutant MI Equipment which was 12 sen firmer at RM1.54, while GSB advanced 4.5 sen to 23 sen, MyEG increased two sen to RM1.00 and YTL Corp went up seven sen to RM1.17.
The FBM Emas Index slid 8.75 points to 12,086.49 and the FBMT100 Index declined 12.32 points to 11,869.02.
The FBM Emas Shariah Index perked 15.24 points to 12,183.96, the FBM70 was 84.27 points higher at 14,706.41 and the FBM Ace Index improved 33.94 points to 5,266.95.
Sector-wise, the Finance Index dipped 145.07 points to 16,936.50, the Plantation Index declined 70.74 points to 7,572.65 but the Industrial Index advanced 22.20 points to 3,146.38.
Main Market volume declined to 1.07 billion shares worth RM2.02 billion from1.28 billion shares worth RM2.41 billion on Tuesday.
Warrants volume retreated to 537.41 million units valued at RM143.87 million against 681.61 million units valued at RM182.80 million yesterday.
Volume on the ACE Market fell to 230.62 million shares worth RM41.90 million from 335.58 million shares worth RM31.25 million previously.
Consumer products accounted for 37.55 million shares traded on the Main Market, industrial products (170.65 million), construction (81.85 million), trade and services (427.97 million), technology (118.83 million), infrastructure (29.18 million), SPAC (636,000), finance (55.50 million), hotels (1.61 million), properties (111.94 million), plantations (40.61 million), mining (12,700), REITs (2.16 million) and closed/fund (10,000). — Bernama