Selangor Journal

Bursa Malaysia slips into red, tracking overnight losses on Wall Street

KUALA LUMPUR, April 8 — Bursa Malaysia slipped into the red at the opening today, tracking overnight losses on the Wall Street as fears on the rapid spread and rising death toll due to Covid-19 continue to weigh on the market sentiment.

At 9.01 am, key index FTSE Bursa Malaysia KLCI (FBM KLCI) erased 5.83 points, or 0.426 per cent to 1,364.09 from 1,369.92 at Tuesday’s close.

The key index opened 3.46 points weaker at 1,366.46.

Market breadth turned negative with losers beating gainers 279 to 77, while 192 counters were unchanged, 1,372 untraded and 20 others suspended.

Turnover stood at 208.92 million worth RM64.78 million.

The United States currently has the most infections in the world with more than 383,000 confirmed cases and 12,021 deaths.

A dealer said the US stock market started to creep back into volatility with DJI fell 0.12 per cent to 22,653.83, S&P 500 dropped 0.16 per cent to 2,659.41 while Nasdaq Composite was 0.33 per cent lower at 7,887.26.

“Therefore the global economy is still in a state of flux as the slower economic growth is still unfolding that could lead to weaker corporate earnings growth in its wake,” he said.

Meanwhile, Malacca Securities Sdn Bhd said the cautious market undertone still prevails and could still dampen the longer-term market outlook.

“Already, Wall Street has staged a pullback overnight and that may see stocks in Bursa Malaysia to follow suit. For now, the FBM KLCI resistances are at the 1,400 and 1,455 levels respectively. The support, meanwhile, remains pegged at the 1,300 level,” it said in a note.

Although the lower liners and broader market shares made headway over the past couple of days, the near term outlook is still largely indifferent over the lack of market catalysts, said the research house.

Malacca Securities said the positive market momentum may turn into a consolidation over the foreseeable future as further upsides could be tempered by bouts of selling activities with retail players quick to lock-in their recent profits.

Among the heavyweights, Maybank fell three sen to RM7.80, Public Bank down four sen to RM15.86, IHH weakened six sen to RM5.06 while Tenaga was flat at RM12.20.

Among the active stocks, Sapura Energy was flat at 10.5 sen, Hibiscus Petroleum slid two sen to 50.5 sen and Bumi Armada inched down half-a-sen to 17.5 sen.

On the index board, the FBM Emas Index declined 46.00 points to 9,431.71, the FBM Emas Shariah Index erased 43.89 points to 10,358.67 while the FBMT 100 Index went down 47.05 points to 9,320.72.

The FBM 70 gave up 85.62 points to 10,998.58 and the FBM Ace dropped 49.10 points to 4,183.80.

Sector-wise, the Industrial Products and Services Index inched down 0.53 of-a-point to 108.80, the Financial Services Index gave up 64.53 points to 12,351.77 and the Plantation Index lost 44.52 points to 6,307.29.

— Bernama

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