Bursa Malaysia ends lower amid cautious market tone
KUALA LUMPUR: Shares on Bursa Malaysia ended the day lower in a range bound trading amid cautious market tone and lack of buying momentum.
The benchmark FTSE Bursa Malaysia KLCI (FBM KLCI) ended at 1,626.93 points, 1.73 points easier from yesterday's close of 1,628.66, after moving between 1,625.39 and 1,630.22.
The index opened 1.31 points higher at 1,629.97.
The market breadth was negative as losers outweighed gainers 543 to 213 with 342 counters unchanged, 620 untraded and 58 suspended.
Volume increased to 1.38 billion shares worth RM1.72 billion from 1.32 billion shares worth RM1.44 billion on Monday.
A dealer said the local bourse saw a tight range trading today, after opening higher tracking the wary regional peers which were traded mixed today.
Stocks on Wall Street fell overnight, the worst performance in nearly a month, as some investors booked profits in the financial and consumer discretionary sectors, setting cautious tone to the market, he said.
"Sentiment was also affected by jittery oil prices in the countdown to Wednesday's Organisation of Petroleum Exporting Countries (Opec) meeting.
"Investors are also awaiting the release of the US non-farm payroll report on Friday for further clues to the US economy," he added.
Among Asian stock markets, Japan's Nikkei 225 fell 0.27% to 18,307.04, Hong Kong's Hang Seng slipped 0.41% to 22,737.07, Korea's Kospi improved 0.01% to 1,978.39 and Singapore's Straits Times went up 0.08% to 2,876.96.
Of heavyweights, Maybank bagged 14 sen to RM7.89, Public Bank gained four sen to RM19.58, Petronas Chemicals added one sen to RM6.80, TNB shed two sen to RM14.12 and Sime Darby eased one sen to RM8.15.
For the actives, AirAsia X shed 1.5 sen to 35.5 sen, Sumatec and APFT Bhd eased half-a-sen each to five sen and six sen, respectively, RGB International added half-a-sen to 24 sen, while Green Packet was flat at 27.5 sen.
The FBM Emas Index fell 26.45 points to 11,377.66, the FBMT100 Index slipped 19.11 points to 11,110.74 and the FBM 70 dropped 48.83 points to 13,029.26.
The FBM Emas Syariah Index gave up 41.52 points for 11,918.59 and the FBM Ace tumbled 88.20 points to 4,771.70.
Sector-wise, the Finance Index rose 50.86 points to 14,216.97, Industrial Index reduced 12.69 points at 3,076.14 and the Plantation Index shed 15.82 points to 7,651.28.
Main Market turnover increased to 954.89 million units worth RM1.64 billion from yesterday's 855.98 million units worth RM1.36 billion.
The ACE Market volume rose to 189.25 million shares valued at RM29.78 million from 175.04 million shares valued at RM26.73 million.
Warrants decreased to 232.10 million units worth RM37.43 million compared with 283.66 million units worth RM44.22 million on Monday.
Consumer products accounted for 50.72 million shares traded on the Main Market, industrial products (221.23 million), construction (58.99 million), trade and services (398.46 million), technology (75.23 million), infrastructure (10.18 million), SPAC (6.97 million), finance (47.30 million), hotels (338,000) properties (32.77 million), plantations (38.90 million), mining (21,000), REITs (13.78 million), and closed/fund (nil).
The physical price of gold as at 5pm stood at RM165.28 per gramme, down 43 sen from RM165.71 at 5pm yesterday. — Bernama