KUALA LUMPUR: Bursa Malaysia took a breather to close easier today, as mild profit-taking emerged following the recent gains.
Rakuten Trade Sdn Bhd head of research Kenny Yee said the local bourse had been on the uptrend since the middle of last week, jumping 10.4 points to close at its intra-day high yesterday.
“The rally had prompted some market participants to lock in some profits,“ he told Bernama.
At 5pm, the benchmark index slid 3.26 points to end at its intra-day low of 1,687.68 from Monday’s close of 1,690.94.
The market bellwether opened 1.54 points firmer at 1,692.48 and hovered between 1,687.68 and 1,694.89 throughout the day.
On the scoreboard, market breadth was negative with losers overtaking gainers 622 to 241, while 373 counters remained unchanged, 652 were untraded and 21 others were suspended.
Volume retreated to 2.89 billion units worth RM1.75 billion from 3.26 billion units worth RM1.92 billion yesterday.
Asked if the two-day Invest Malaysia 2019 conference, deemed as the largest capital market event in the country, had any implications on today’s market, Yee said it was too early to tell as the forum had yet to provide any fresh catalysts to move the stocks.
“Probably, the announcement of the 1%t tax reduction in corporate tax rate might have a little impact on small and medium-sized enterprises (SMEs), but overall, not many catalysts have been provided from the event yet,“ he said.
In his keynote address at the conference here today, Prime Minister Tun Dr Mahathir Mohamad announced that the corporate tax rate for SMEs would be reduced to 17% this year, from 18% previously.
He said the reduction only applies to SMEs with paid capital below RM2.5 million and businesses with annual taxable income of below RM500,000.
Among heavyweights, Maybank and CIMB eased one sen each to RM9.48 and RM5.47 respectively, Public Bank and Petronas Chemicals were unchanged at RM24.48 and RM9.25 respectively, while Tenaga bagged 14 sen to RM13.20.
Of the actives, Sapura Energy and its warrant were 1.5 sen lower at 34.5 sen and 13 sen respectively, Dayang declined 24 sen to RM1.38, Bumi Armada slid one sen to 19 sen but Metronic Global inched up 1.5 sen to nine sen.
Nestle led the losers after falling 70 sen to RM147.80 while BAT topped the gainers’ list, accumulating 32 sen to RM34.58.
The FBM Emas Index fell 47.35 points to 11,769.40, the FBMT 100 Index trimmed 41.21 points to 11,622.13 and the FBM Emas Shariah Index gave up 53.61 points to 11,790.25.
The FBM Ace Index decreased 81.96 points to 4,819.82 and the FBM 70 dipped 126.56 points lower to 14,110.91.
Sector-wise, the Financial Services Index slipped 24.0 points to 17,476.0, the Industrial Products and Services Index went down 0.31 point to 170.58 and the Plantation Index shrank 22.97 points to 7,262.66.
Main Market volume was flat at 2.16 billion shares worth RM1.60 billion versus 2.16 billion shares worth RM1.69 billion on Monday.
Warrants reduced to 342.39 million units valued at RM70.83 million against 470.63 million units valued at RM94.53 million.
Volume on the ACE Market narrowed to 383.74 million shares worth RM79.10 million against 630.46 million shares worth RM132.11 million.
Consumer products and services accounted for 245.90 million shares traded on the Main Market, industrial products and services (325.44 million), construction (166.04 million), technology (146.64 million), SPAC (nil), financial services (39.69 million), property (130.86 million), plantation (18.36 million), REITs (5.45 million), closed/fund (140,200), energy (907.62 million), healthcare (20.19 million), telecommunications and media (23.32 million), transportation and logistics (50.71 million), and utilities (84.22 million).
The physical price of gold as at 5pm stood at RM165.43 per gramme, up 18 sen from RM165.25 at 5pm yesterday. — Bernama
