KUALA LUMPUR, March 31 — Bursa Malaysia ended sharply lower today with the key index declining 2.22 per cent, weighed mainly by glove stocks as well as weak sentiment in the local market, but managed to recoup a bit of the losses to close off its intraday low.
At 5pm, the benchmark FTSE Bursa Malaysia KLCI (FBM KLCI) fell 35.68 points to 1,573.51 from Tuesday’s close of 1,609.19.
The index opened 0.23 of-a-point easier at 1,608.96 and moved between 1,564.06 and 1,608.96 throughout the day.
On the broader market, losers trounced gainers by 858 to 303, while 369 counters were unchanged, 671 untraded and 87 others suspended.
Total volume swelled to 8.36 billion shares valued at RM4.22 billion from Tuesday’s 5.78 billion shares valued at RM3.59 billion.
Losses in glove stocks was due to the US Customs and Border Protection’s (CBP) forced labour claim in Top Glove Corp’s production process.
Top Glove shed 25 sen to RM4.52, Hartalega trimmed 43 sen to RM8.93, and Supermax weakened 14 sen to RM3.81. The three stocks accounted for 7.49 points to the loss in the key index.
On other heavyweights, Maybank fell 15 sen to RM8.25, Public Bank was eight sen easier at RM4.20, Petronas Chemicals went down 10 sen to RM8, TNB gave up 28 sen to RM10.12, and IHH Healthcare eased 11 sen to RM5.32.
As for active counters, Berjaya Corp rose six sen to 45.5 sen, Scomi gained one sen to 6.5 sen, Barakah Offshore increased two sen to 11 sen, and AT Systematization eased one sen to 9.5 sen.
The downtrend in the local market was also in line with its regional peers.
Japan’s Nikkei 225 fell 0.86 per cent to 29,178.80, Hong Kong’s Hang Seng Index slipped 0.7 per cent to 28,378.35, and Singapore’s Straits Times Index went down 0.35 per cent to 3,179.58.
On the index board, the FBM 70 gave up 128.8 points to 15,473.57, the FBM Emas Index reduced 208.21 points to 11,614.56, the FBMT 100 went down 213.27 points to 11,281.77, the FBM Emas Shariah fell sank 241.22 points to 12,846.17, and the FBM ACE slumped 167.09 points to 10,065.8.
Sector-wise, the Financial Services Index dropped 237.92 points to 15,220.99, the Industrial Products and Services Index eased 2.39 points to 191.14, and the Plantation Index dipped 123.16 points to 7,011.51.
Main Market volume was higher at 5.87 billion shares worth RM3.69 billion from Tuesday’s 3.83 billion shares worth RM2.92 billion.
Warrants turnover advanced to 311.28 million units valued at RM47.46 million from 250.08 million units valued at RM36.92 million yesterday.
Volume on the ACE Market increased to 2.17 billion shares worth RM486.92 million from 1.69 billion shares worth RM631.33 million on Tuesday.
Consumer products and services accounted for 1.02 billion shares traded on the Main Market, industrial products and services (1.92 billion), construction (1.83 million), technology (353.12 million), SPAC (nil), financial services (161.60 million), property (896.87 million), plantations (37.42 million), REITs (6.0 million), closed/fund (33,400), energy (990.95 million), healthcare (129.25 million), telecommunications and media (58.13 million), transportation and logistics (88.32 million), and utilities (32.38 million).
— Bernama
