KUALA LUMPUR: Bursa Malaysia ended mixed today amid profit-taking in heavyweights and bargain hunting in small-cap stocks as global markets continued to face uncertainties.
At 5pm, the FTSE Bursa Malaysia KLCI (FBM KLCI) fell 1.17 points to 1,550.47 from yesterday’s close of 1,551.64.
After opening 0.01 of-a-point weaker at 1,551.63 this morning, the benchmark index moved between 1,547.94 and 1,554.42 throughout the day.
On the broader market, gainers outpaced losers 513 to 392, while 358 counters were unchanged, 730 untraded and 21 others suspended.
Turnover decreased to 2.69 billion shares worth RM2.55 billion from 3.36 billion shares worth RM2.88 billion recorded yesterday.
In a note, AmInvestment Bank Bhd said stock markets around the world had reacted negatively to the escalation in the 2019 Novel Coronavirus outbreak, and Bursa Malaysia is no exception, with the latest reports saying it has thus far infected more than 5,000 people globally and claimed 132 lives in China as of the end of Tuesday.
However, AmInvestment Bank said it would maintain its end-2020 FBM KLCI target at 1,670 points for now.
While it is positive on the outlook for the market over the next 12 months, it said investors should exercise caution over the next three to six months as it appeared that the current outbreak would not go away or taper off anytime soon.
“More so as the key stock markets in most parts of the world have been scaling record highs since the beginning of the year, leaving investors with plenty of room to take profits.
“We believe the downside risk to the local market is more limited given the FBM KLCI’s major underperformance in 2019,” it added.
Among the heavyweights on Bursa Malaysia, Maybank lost one sen to RM8.45, Public Bank added four sen to RM19.00, Tenaga was 18 sen lower at RM12.56 and Petronas Chemicals decreased six sen to RM6.58.
Of the actives, Avillion was half-a-sen higher at 16 sen, Careplus eased 3.5 sen to 36 sen and DGB Asia was 1.5 sen lower at 11 sen.
On the scoreboard, the FBM Emas Index was 9.98 points higher at 11,079.62, the FBM Emas Shariah Index lost 11.66 points to 11,784.28 and the FBMT 100 Index rose 4.34 points to 10,870.62.
The FBM 70 gained 56.92 points to 13,993.29 and the FBM ACE increased 68.01 points to 5,635.79.
Sector-wise, the Industrial Products and Services Index inched up 0.29 of-a-point to 148.53, the Financial Services Index added 28.34 points to 14,914.15 and the Plantation Index was 24.88 points higher at 7,214.20.
Main Market volume declined to 1.65 billion shares worth RM2.28 billion from 2.27 billion shares worth RM2.60 billion yesterday.
Warrants turnover increased to 410.79 million units worth RM70.40 million from 353.10 million units worth RM46.81 million.
Volume on the ACE Market reduced to 621.91 million shares worth RM192.94 million from 739.39 million shares worth RM240.59 million yesterday.
Consumer products and services accounted for 353.27 million shares traded on the Main Market, industrial products and services (232.81 million), construction (92.57 million), technology (126.91 million), SPAC (nil), financial services (51.04 million), property (71.83 million), plantations (111.91 million), REITs (23.08 million), closed/fund (14,000), energy (279.79 million), healthcare (147.79 million), telecommunications and media (24.93 million), transportation and logistics (88.35 million) and utilities (55.59 million). - Bernama
