Bursa Malaysia ends lower on profit taking
KUALA LUMPUR: Bursa Malaysia ended lower today on profit taking activities across-the-board and in tandem with its regional peers.
At 5pm, the benchmark FTSE Bursa Malaysia KLCI (FBM KLCI) fell 7.29 points to 1,708.38, after moving between 1,704.33 and 1,1716.03 throughout the trading session.
The index opened 1.14 points lower at 1,714.53 from Thursday's close of 1,715.67.
Market breadth was negative as losers led gainers 508 to 407 with 349 counters unchanged, 432 untraded and 14 others suspended.
Volume rose to 3.41 billion units worth RM2.63 billion against Thursday's 3.13 billion units worth RM3.05 billion.
A dealer said the bourse was lower throughout the session on persistent selling pressure sparked by a pullback on Wall Street.
Asian stocks also fell across the board on Friday on Wall Street's retracement and rising bets of an interest rate hike by the Federal Reserve at its March 14-15 policy meeting.
Regionally, Hong Kong's Hang Seng fell 0.74% to 23,552.72, Japan's Nikkei 225 slipped 0.49% to 19,469.17, South Korea's Kospi's slid 1.14% to 2,078.75 and Singapore's Straits Times shed 0.46% to 3,122.63.
Of the heavyweights, Maybank and Sime Darby eased two sen each to RM8.73 and RM9.10 respectively and Public Bank shed ten sen to RM19.88.
Petronas Chemicals improved two sen to RM7.40, while TNB gained four sen to RM13.62.
Among actives, Dagang Nexchange warrant shed two sen to 19 sen, Dagang Nexchange and Borneo Oil eased five sen each to 39 sen and 17 sen.
Bioalpha Holdings warrants gained seven sen to 18.5 sen and Bioalpha Holdings bagged four sen to 26.5 sen.
The FBM Emas Index was 50.19 points lower at 12,057.59, the FBM Emas Shariah Index slipped 43.07 points to 12,498.77 and the FBMT100 Index fell 53 points to 11,736.31.
The FBM Ace eased 0.46 of-a-point to 5,261.87 and the FBM 70 dropped 74.60 points to 14,028.23.
On a sectoral basis, the Finance Index fell 23.51 points to 15,288.56, the Industrial Index declined 19.64 points to 3,236.45, and the plantation Index gave up 44.42 points at 8,094.51.
Main Market turnover fell to 2.34 billion units worth RM2.45 billion versus Thursday's 2.36 billion units worth RM2.92 billion.
Volume on the ACE Market surged to 794.75 million shares valued at RM143.94 million from 464.35 million shares valued at RM82.68 million.
Warrants slid to 259.62 million units worth RM36.27 million from 301.51 million units worth RM42.44 million.
Consumer products accounted for 147.25 million shares traded on the Main Market, industrial products (253.63 million), construction (220.22 million), trade and services (1.27 billion), technology (94.82 million), infrastructure (7.02 million), SPAC (18.66 million), finance (73.86 million), hotels (241,700), properties (202.04 million), plantations (19.91 million), mining (nil), REITs (12.91 million) and closed/fund (12,000).
The physical price of gold as at 5pm stood at RM169.94 per gramme, down RM2.27 from RM172.21 at 5pm yesterday. — Bernama