KUALA LUMPUR: Shares on Bursa Malaysia closed lower today, dampened by weak sentiment across the region as the US-China trade dispute deepened.
At the close, the benchmark FTSE Bursa Malaysia KLCI (FBM KLCI) eased 3.55 points to 1,598.32.
The market barometer opened 7.71 points lower at 1,594.16 and hovered between 1,592.97 and 1,606.85 throughout the day.
Market breadth was negative as losers beat gainers 449 to 342 with 358 counters unchanged, 748 untraded and 24 others suspended.
Turnover decreased to 1.89 billion units worth RM1.54 billion from Thursday’s 2.37 billion units worth RM2.11 billion.
A dealer said most Southeast Asian stock markets declined after US President Donald Trump said that his administration’s complaints against Huawei Technologies might be resolved within the framework of a Sino-US trade deal, while at the same time calling the Chinese telecommunications giant “very dangerous”.
“Asian markets are likely to take another step back today as investors reassess their market positioning amid the potentially protracted US-China trade war,“ he said.
Washington last week placed Huawei on a trade blacklist, which effectively banned US companies from selling goods to the telecom giant.
Among the heavyweights, Maybank lost three sen to RM8.99 and TNB fell 12 sen to RM11.54, while CIMB was flat at RM5.15.
Public Bank edged up two sen to RM22.52 and Petronas Chemicals perked 12 sen to RM8.75.
Of the actively-traded stocks, Vortex lost two sen to 25 sen, Impiana slipped half-a-sen to 3.5 sen and Sapura Energy declined one sen to 29 sen.
Lambo climbed half-a-sen to six sen and Dayang added three sen to 92 sen.
The FBM Emas Index lost 21.811 points to 11,187.92, the FBMT 100 was 22.591 points lower at 11,041.81 and the FBM 70 fell 20.04 points to 13,549.53.
The FBM Emas Shariah Index declined 16.78 points to 11,315.5 but the FBM Ace Index added 0.1 points to 4,289.
Sector-wise, the Financial Services Index decreased 18.76 points to 16,534.56, the Plantation Index fell 20.33 points to 6,817.09 and the Industrial Products and Services Index was 0.59 of-a-point lower at 162.01.
Main Market volume decreased to 1.15.3 billion shares worth RM1.4 billion from Thursday’s 1.51 billion shares worth RM1.92 billion.
Warrants turnover declined to 325.73 million units valued at RM86.13 million from 444.03 million units valued at RM120.49 million.
Volume on the ACE Market contracted to 413.68 million shares worth 62.98 million from 420.55 million shares worth RM70.87 million previously.
Consumer products and services accounted for 237.6 million shares traded on the Main Market, industrial products and services (155.17 million), construction (133.04 million), technology (90.21 million), SPAC (nil), financial services (34.08 million), property (122.79 million), plantation (13.97 million), REITs (3.95 million), closed/fund (2,600), energy (276.96 million), healthcare (24.95 million), telecommunications and media (19.49 million), transportation and logistics (21.79 million) and utilities (18.99 million). - Bernama
