KUALA LUMPUR: Bursa Malaysia ended 0.21% lower on Tuesday as investors engaged in stock-picking in sector rotational play, which can add more value to their investment portfolio, a dealer said.
At 5pm, the FTSE Bursa Malaysia KLCI (FBM KLCI) fell 3.43 points to 1,668.94 compared with 1,672.37 on Monday.
The benchmark index opened 0.88 of-a-point easier at 1,671.49 earlier today and moved between 1,666.37 and 1,672.47 throughout the day.
Losers outpaced gainers by 450 to 407, while 412 counters were unchanged, 586 untraded and 19 others suspended.
Inter-Pacific Securities head of research Pong Teng Siew said investors were shifting to specific stocks such as defensive stocks, as well as real estate investment trusts (REITs), healthcare, technology, energy, as well as construction counters.
Apart from that, he noted that today’s trading was also pulled down by plantation stocks.
“Meanwhile, resumption of major projects have clearly pushed the counters related to it. As for the energy sector, it is on an uptrend, backed by higher revenue, whilst the technology sector is more transparent as the impact from the US-China trade war is more clear,” he told Bernama.
Pong also said that investors were able to distinguish stocks that are affected by the trade tensions between the two economic superpowers.
He also said the finance, consumers and utility sectors were seemingly on a downtrend as companies in these sectors posted lower earnings margin.
Index-linked counters, IHH gained six sen to RM5.80 while TNB lost 10 sen to RM13.78, Maybank reduced one sen to RM8.89, Public Bank was flat at RM22.98 while Petronas Chemicals was 12 sen easier at RM8.24.
As for the actives, KNM added half-a-sen to 40 sen while its warrant rose 5.5 sen to 29 sen, Ekovest gained six sen to 86 sen, IWCity perked up 7.5 sen to RM1.06 while Bumi Armada was flat at 25 sen.
The FBM Emas Index was down 10.14 points to 11,857.28 and the FBMT 100 Index slid 10.41 points to 11,680.49, while the FBM Emas Shariah Index was 11.94 points lower at 12,258.69.
The FBM Ace gained 5.09 points to 4,700.73 and the FBM 70 added 41.84 points to 14,950.68.
Sector-wise, the Financial Services Index fell 20.30 points to 16,615.22, the Plantation Index dipped 15.77 points to 6,885.65 and the Industrial Products and Services Index eased 0.65 of-a-point to 160.21.
Turnover rose to 3.32 billion units worth RM2.09 billion from 3.01 billion units worth RM1.65 billion yesterday.
Main Market volume was higher at 2.54 billion shares worth RM1.94 billion compared with 2.01 billion shares worth RM1.46 billion on Monday.
Warrants turnover declined to 399.41 million units worth RM82.62 million against 454.26 million units valued at RM96.26 million yesterday.
Volume on the ACE Market shrank to 380.0 million shares worth RM65.76 million from 540.53 million shares worth RM85.18 million previously.
Consumer products and services accounted for 393.28 million shares traded on the Main Market, industrial products and services (249.76 million), construction (265.34 million), technology (190.86 million), SPAC (nil), financial services (32.33 million), property (190.095 million), plantation (11.53 million), REITs (23.05 million), closed/fund (2,000), energy (897.08 million), healthcare (19.17 million), telecommunications and media (199.53 million), transportation and logistics (46.71 million) and utilities (25.65 million).
The physical price of gold as at 5.00pm stood at RM180.73 per gramme, down 20 sen from RM180.93 at 5.00pm yesterday. — Bernama
