KUALA LUMPUR: Bursa Malaysia extended last week’s losses to end lower today, with the key index remaining below the 1,500-point level as weak market sentiment hurt investors’ risk appetite, dealers said.
The benchmark FTSE Bursa Malaysia KLCI (FBM KLCI) eased 1.6 points to end the first trading day of August at 1,493.0 compared with Friday’s close of 1,494.60.
The key index, which opened 2.79 points higher at 1,497.39, moved between 1,486.23 and 1,499.74 throughout the session.
The local market moved slightly higher in the morning trade on mild bargain-hunting, but retreated after an hour into trading as market sentiment turned sluggish.
On the broader market, losers thumped gainers 594 versus 440, while 378 counters were unchanged, 760 untraded and 11 others suspended.
Turnover decreased to 3.43 billion units worth RM2.38 billion from Friday’s 4.12 billion units valued at RM2.72 billion.
Bank Islam Malaysia Bhd economist Adam Mohamed Rahim said the FBM KLCI bucked the regional trend whereby other Asian markets were recoding gains amid a rebound in China shares as sentiment improved following the sell-off sparked by the regulatory crackdown on the technology sector last week.
“Concerns from the number of daily Covid-19 cases in the country seem to cloud the encouraging prospects from the daily vaccination doses which have been maintained at around 500,000 doses per day recently.
“At the same time, investors continued to closely monitor the political developments of the country,” he told Bernama.
Adam said Sime Darby Plantation led decliners in the index-linked counter with a 2.9 percent drop, while the Bursa Malaysia Energy index was the biggest loser among other sectoral indexes after ending 2.3 per cent lower in line with the softer Brent crude oil price.
Of the heavyweights, Maybank trimmed two sen to RM7.99 while Public Bank and Tenaga slipped one sen each to RM3.97 and RM9.63 respectively.
PetChem added one sen to RM8.05, IHH advanced eight sen to RM5.72, while CIMB and Hong Leong Bank bagged two sen each to RM4.47 and RM18.02 respectively.
Among the actives, Resintech rose 14 sen to 73.5 sen after 113.36 million shares changed hands, Greenyield picked up 8.0 sen to 38 sen, while Serba Dinamik and Saudee shed 1.5 sen each to 38 sen and 12 sen respectively.
On the index board, the FBM Emas Index bagged 6.19 points to 10,979.66, FBMT 100 Index gained 10.88 points to 10,692.1, FBM 70 soared 101.54 points to 14,619.83, FBM Emas Shariah Index rose 22.18 points to 12,071.27, and the FBM ACE perked 6.3 points to 7,086.93.
Sector-wise, the Financial Services Index was 12.9 points lower at 14,668.55, the Plantation Index gave up 29.8 points for 6,009.24, while the Industrial Products and Services Index added 0.62 of-a-point to 187.82.
Main Market volume increased marginally to 2.15 billion worth at RM2.0 billion from Friday’s 2.14 billion shares valued at RM2.17 billion.
Warrants turnover widened slightly to 294.79 million units worth RM38.44 million from 293.15 million units worth RM42.73 million.
Volume on the ACE Market contracted to 976.3 million shares worth RM336.25 million from 1.69 billion shares valued at RM502.54 million on Friday.
Consumer products and services accounted for 498.07 million shares traded on the Main Market, industrial products and services (693.29 million), construction (57.3 million), technology (311.67 million), SPAC (nil), financial services (70.85 million), property (155.02 million), plantation (39.29 million), REITs (5.05 million), closed/fund (30,500), energy (205.3 million), healthcare (41.2 million), telecommunications and media (27.75 million), transportation and logistics (34.26 million), and utilities (14.31 million). — Bernama
