8 minutes
KUALA LUMPUR: Bursa Malaysia ended the day almost flat amid selling pressure mainly in the energy, healthcare and logistics sectors.
At 5 pm, the benchmark FTSE Bursa Malaysia KLCI (FBM KLCI) slipped 0.98 of-a-point to 1,635.71 compared with 1,636.69 at yesterday’s close.
The index opened 1.31 points higher at 1,638.0 and moved between 1,632.20 and 1,646.24.
On the broader market, gainers pipped losers 584 to 583, while 430 counters were unchanged, 502 untraded and 24 others suspended.
Total volume fell to 6.49 billion units worth RM4.87 billion from 7.12 billion units worth RM5.11 billion on Wednesday.
Bank Islam Malaysia Bhd economist Adam Mohamed Rahim said steady gains in the banking sector was overshadowed by losses in mainly rubber glove makers.
He cited Maybank, CIMB and Public Bank while Press Metal emerged as the biggest gainer amongst the FBM KLCI index constituents with a 5.8 per cent jump.
Meanwhile, Top Glove, Supermax and Hartalega all declined by at least 3.0 per cent, due to the bearish report by JP Morgan on the rubber glove sector.
JP Moran believes demand for gloves will continue to ease, contrasting with the consensus expectation that demand for disposable gloves will not shrink as sharply.
“As a result, the Bursa Malaysia Healthcare Index saw a 1.3 per cent loss during the day, the larger amongst sectoral indexes,“ he told Bernama.
Regionally, markets were rather mixed for the day and oil prices remained in the red after rising COVID-19 cases caused demand worries.
Among heavyweights, Top Glove declined 26 sen to RM6.37, Hartalega fell 70 sen to RM12.30 and Supermax dropped 47 sen to RM6.64.
Press Metal improved 48 sen to RM8.76 and PetChem expanded eight sen to RM7.50.
Maybank added five sen to RM8.35 and Public Bank gained 30 sen to RM21.70.
Of the actives, PNE lost 13 sen to 50 sen, while Techna-X was 15 sen higher at 16 sen and Iris inched up three sen to 41.5 sen.
On the index board, the FBM Emas Index improved 0.66 of-a-point to 11,749.42, the FBMT 100 Index went down 1.64 points to 11,488.61, and the FBM Emas Shariah Index eased 39.41 points to 13,215.57.
The FBM 70 edged up 18.42 points to 14,839.50 and the FBM ACE was 68.04 points better at 10.760.07.
Sector-wise, the Financial Services Index climbed 110.87 points to 15,176.61, the Industrial Products and Services Index inched up 3.17 points to 178.7, the Plantation Index retreated 29.66 points to 7,453.46 and the Healthcare Index declined 44.43 points to 3,619.15.
The Main Market volume declined to 4.10 billion shares worth RM4.12 billion from yesterday’s 4.76 billion shares worth RM4.43 billion.
Warrants turnover slipped to 450.33 million units valued at RM73.44 million versus 500.21 million units valued at RM81.51 million.
Volume on the ACE Market however, rose to 1.94 billion shares worth RM671.94 million from 1.86 billion shares worth RM592.77 million previously.
Consumer products and services accounted for 778.55 million shares traded on the Main Market, industrial products and services (1.54 billion), construction (154.60 million), technology (457.24 million), SPAC (nil), financial services (97.41 million), property (175.54 million), plantations (78.71 million), REITs (14.79 million), closed/fund (nil), energy (374.46 million), healthcare (126.74 million), telecommunications and media (125.37 million), transportation and logistics (133.66 million), and utilities (41.91 million). -Bernama
