Bursa Malaysia finishes nearly two-week low
KUALA LUMPUR: Bursa Malaysia finished at a nearly two-week low today, weighed down by losses in finance-linked counters, following the shocking announcement about the aborted Bandar Malaysia Sdn Bhd equity sale deal yesterday.
At 5pm, the FTSE Bursa Malaysia KLCI (FBM KLCI) lost 13.84 points, or 0.78%, to 1,758.67 after fluctuating between 1,754.23 and 1,768.71 throughout the day.
The index opened 4.58 points lower at 1,767.93 from Wednesday's close of 1,772.51.
Market breadth was negative with losers outpacing gainers 825 to 185, while 293 counters were unchanged, 447 untraded and 29 others suspended.
Volume narrowed to 3.44 billion units worth RM2.89 billion from 3.90 billion units worth RM3.04 billion on Wednesday.
Yesterday, Bandar Malaysia's master developer TRX City Sdn Bhd said the agreement with Iskandar Waterfront Holdings Sdn Bhd (IWH) and China Railway Engineering Corporation (M) Sdn Bhd (CREC), on the sale of 60% of the issued and paid-up capital of Bandar Malaysia, had lapsed due to the failure of the purchasing parties to fulfill payment obligations.
In a note today, UOB Kay Hian Pte Ltd said the announcement had dampened the broader market sentiment and reversed positive foreign equity inflows into Malaysia.
Public Investment Bank Bhd also noted that the announcement had made the investor sentiment turning cautious.
IWH's sister company, IWC's share trading is suspended from 9am today until 5pm tomorrow, with its price remained flat at RM3.08, while IWC's sister company, Ekovest, which hit limit-down earlier, fell 26 sen to RM1.17 and its warrant was 17.5 sen lower at 95.5.
Among heavyweights, finance-related counters, including Maybank fell seven sen to RM9.20, Public Bank slid 16 sen to RM19.98 and CIMB trimmed two sen to RM5.79.
Tenaga eased four sen to RM13.90 and Petronas Chemicals was two sen lower at RM7.13.
Of the actives, Key Alliance inched down half-a-sen to 4.5 sen, Dagang Nexchange trimmed three sen to 63.5 sen, but Netx advanced one sen to five sen, GlobalTec improved half-a-sen to six sen, while XOX remained unchanged at 13 sen.
The FBM Emas Index lost 108.35 points to 12,561.65, the FBMT100 Index dropped 103.72 points to 12,190.20 and the FBM Emas Shariah Index was 54.73 points lower at 12,916.81.
The FBM 70 gave up 156.93 points to 14,981.08 and the FBM Ace declined 55.01 points to 6,196.14.
Sector-wise, the Finance Index dipped 266.24 points to 16,153.28, the Plantation Index shed 2.73 points to 8,028.73, but the Industrial Index was 3.32 points better at 3,251.73.
Main Market turnover narrowed to 2.32 billion units valued at RM2.75 billion from 2.67 billion units worth RM2.86 billion on Wednesday.
Volume on the ACE Market reduced to 815.84 million units worth 107.46 million from 957.84 million shares valued at RM149.75 million previously.
However, warrants widened to 286.97 units worth RM30.40 million from 252.14 million units valued at RM27.73 million on Wednesday.
Consumer products accounted for 120.92 million shares traded on the Main Market, industrial products (513.10 million), construction (398.66 million), trade and services (700.73 million), technology (205.07 million), infrastructure (12.21 million), SPAC (22.60 million ), finance (78.36 million), hotels (1.01 million), properties (210.22 million), plantations (50.35 million), mining (0), REITs (16.25 million), and closed/fund (259,900).
The physical price of gold as at 5pm stood at RM166.39 per gramme, down RM2.01 from RM168.40 at 5pm yesterday. — Bernama