Bursa Malaysia ends on weaker note
KUALA LUMPUR: Bursa Malaysia ended Wednesday on a weaker note as selling pressure continued to weigh on the key index.
A dealer said today's trading was also in sync with the bearish regional market performance, as weak market sentiment persisted following the overnight sell-off on Wall Street curbed investors' risk appetite.
At 5pm, the FTSE Bursa Malaysia KLCI (FBM KLCI) closed 15.26 points, or 0.82% easier, at its intraday low of 1,856.20 from Tuesday's close of 1,871.46.
The benchmark index opened 0.06 of-a-point lower at 1,871.40 and moved between 1,856.20 and 1,872.02 throughout the day.
On the broader market, losers led gainers 812 to 265 with 344 counters unchanged, 458 untraded and 48 others suspended.
Volume, however, advanced to 2.95 billion units worth RM3.64 billion from 2.76 billion units worth RM2.89 billion yesterday.
The dealer said Federal Reserve Chair Jerome Powell's hawkish remarks on the US monetary policy, alongside the sluggish China's manufacturing data in February, had dampened investor sentiment globally.
"Apart from that, the weaker-than-expected corporate results released yesterday also triggered the sell-off on most counters," he said, adding that profit-taking also took place after the local bourse closed at a more than three-week high yesterday.
Regionally, Japan's Nikkei dipped 321.62 points or 1.44% to 22,068.24, Singapore's Straits Times fell 25.26 points or 0.71% to 3,515.13 and Hong Kong's Hang Seng slumped 423.94 points or 1.36% to 30,844.72.
Of the heavyweights, TNB lost six sen to RM15.70, CIMB declined 10 sen to RM7.19, Petronas Chemicals was three sen easier at RM8.09, while Maybank and Public Bank were unchanged at RM10.46 and RM23.00, respectively.
Among active counters, Unimech gained 4.5 sen to 7.5 sen, Perisai Petroleum added one sen to six sen, while UMW O&G dropped one sen to 32 sen, Sino Hua-An trimmed four sen to 55 sen and Sapura Energy slipped two sen to 67 sen.
Dutch Lady led the list of top gainers by erasing RM3.30 to RM66.60, followed by Heng Yuan, declined RM1.94 to RM13.16, Thong Guan shed 52 sen to RM3.10, Petron Malaysia weakened 50 sen to RM10.90, and PPB was 48 sen lower at RM17.70.
Meanwhile, Malaysia's first US dollar denominated Islamic exchange traded fund (ETF), the MyETF — US50, which made its debut on the Main Market of Bursa Malaysia today, finished at US$1.005, a premium of US$0.005 per share with 139,600 shares traded.
The FBM Emas Index slipped 130.71 points to 13,218.25, the FBMT 100 Index declined 124.78 points to 12,922.76, the FBM 70 dipped 218.63 points to 16,114.50, FBM Emas Syariah Index was 157.76 points easier at 13,427.51 and the FBM Ace slumped 137.61 points to 6,206.84.
Sector-wise, the Finance Index edged down 36.06 points to 18,263.10, the Industrial Index shed 18.92 points to 3,228.01 and the Plantation Index was 84.66 points weaker at 7,991.47.
The Main Market volume increased to 2.02 billion units worth RM3.46 billion from 1.62 billion units valued at RM2.69 billion on Tuesday.
Volume on the ACE Market fell to 334.03 million shares worth RM59.39 million from 684.59 million shares worth RM110.15 million yesterday.
Warrants' volume was higher at 592.40 million units valued at RM117.27 million against Tuesday's 442.41 million units worth RM84.51 million.
Consumer products accounted for 97.79 million shares traded on the Main Market, industrial products (481.76 million), construction (71.21 million), trade and services (923.55 million), technology (99.11 million), infrastructure (13.77 million), SPAC (5.19 million), finance (111.25 million), hotels (1.08 million), properties (154.57 million), plantations (36.40 million), mining (768,600), REITs (21.62 million), and closed/fund (nil).
The physical price of gold as at 5pm stood at RM160.69 per gramme, down RM1.54 from RM162.23 at 5pm yesterday. — Bernama