KUALA LUMPUR, April 6 — Bursa Malaysia ended in the red today, continuing yesterday’s losses despite attempting a rebound after Wall Street’s overnight rally, on selling pressure in heavyweight stocks.
At 5pm, the FBM KLCI was 5.33 points down at 1,578.91 from Monday’s close of 1,584.24.
The index opened 4.03 points higher at 1,588.27 and moved between 1,575.18 and 1,589.06 throughout the trading session.
On the broader market, losers beat gainers 650 versus 382, while 469 counters were unchanged, 630 untraded and nine others suspended.
Total volume decreased to 6.27 billion shares valued at RM3.22 billion from 7.84 billion shares valued at RM2.80 billion on Monday.
Regionally, Singapore’s Straits Times Index eased 0.04 per cent to 3,208.60, Japan’s Nikkei was 1.30 per cent lower at 29,696.63 and South Korea’s Kospi gained 0.20 per cent to 3,127.08 while Hong Kong trading was closed for Easter.
A dealer said Asian shares were mostly lower today despite Wall Street’s rally on optimism of economic recovery following streaks of positive economic data, as sentiment was dampened on news that China is curtailing loan growth for the rest of this year, after a surge in the first two months sparked bubble risks.
Locally, he said Bursa Malaysia opened higher but turned into negative territory at mid-morning to end lower today on selling pressure across the board.
Bank Islam Malaysia Bhd economist Adam Mohamed Rahim told Bernama that Sime Darby Plantation was the major drag on the local bourse as it declined by 3.85 per cent today.
“The local bourse was supported by some buying interest in rubber glove counters with share prices of Top Glove, Supermax and Hartalega all closing higher today amid bargain-hunting activities.
“Therefore it was no surprise that the Bursa Malaysia healthcare index was the largest gainer among other sectoral indices after closing 0.94 per cent higher,” he noted.
Of the heavyweights, Maybank and IHH Healthcare lost three sen each to RM8.31 and RM5.30 respectively, Public Bank reduced two sen to RM4.20, Petronas Chemicals shed four sen to RM7.95 and Tenaga fell four sen to RM10.16.
Among the active counters,TA Win added 1.5 sen to 44 sen, Berjaya Corp slipped 3.5 sen to 40.5 sen, Dagang Nexchange lost 5.5 sen to 80.5 sen while Vortex warrant and Focus Dynamic warrant were flat at half-a-sen and one sen, respectively.
ACE Market debutant Volcano closed 13.5 sen higher at 48.5 sen.
On the index board, the FBM Emas Index was 36.83 points lower at 11,718.62, the FBMT 100 decreased 32.15 points to 11,372.42, the FBM Emas Shariah slipped 44.09 points to 123,975.21, the FBM ACE reduced 77.19 points to 9,631.15 and the FBM 70 shed 20.71 points to 15,797.56.
Sector-wise, the Plantation Index went down 91.69 points to 6,939.63, the Industrial Products and Services Index eased 0.81 of-a-point to 193.14 and the Financial Services Index dropped 59.87 points to 15,240.36.
Main Market volume fell to 3.99 billion shares worth RM2.76 billion from Monday’s 4.03 billion shares worth RM2.34 billion.
Warrants turnover improved to 242.94 million units valued at RM36.96 million from 196.23 million units valued at RM25.67 million yesterday.
Volume on the ACE Market decreased to 2.03 billion shares worth RM433.56 million from 3.61 billion shares worth RM436.54 million on Monday.
Consumer products and services accounted for 631.78 million shares traded on the Main Market, industrial products and services (1.15 billion), construction (211.41 million), technology (555.88 million), SPAC (nil), financial services (61.19 million), property (781.74 million), plantations (31.08 million), REITs (8.34 million), closed/fund (76,900), energy (260.93 million), healthcare (38.86 million), telecommunications and media (38.86 million), transportation and logistics (159.79 million), and utilities (65.50 million).
— Bernama
