Bursa M'sia snaps 9-day winning streak to end lower

KUALA LUMPUR: Bursa Malaysia snapped a nine-day winning streak to close easier today on technical correction, amid a recovery in the Chinese market and overnight Wall Street decline, said a dealer.
At 5 pm, the benchmark FTSE Bursa Malaysia KLCI (FBM KLCI) finished at 1,754.67, down 4.57 points, from Thursday's close of 1,759.24.
The barometer index moved between 1,749.52 and 1,758.63 throughout the day.
Bank Islam Malaysia Bhd Chief Economist Dr. Mohd Afzanizam Abdul Rashid said the local bourse was undergoing a technical correction as the index had surpassed the 50-day simple moving average.
Additionally, he told Bernama the US market was also down following disappointing corporate earnings reports.
"Nevertheless, Malaysian consumers were feeling upbeat with the latest Consumer Sentiment Index surging to more than 130 points in the second quarter after remaining below 100 points for 15 consecutive quarters," said Mohd Afzanizam.
He said Malaysia could expect consumer spending to hold up well especially when the inflation rate was expected to remain low for June-August 2018 period.
"Despite the selling today, consumer-related stocks are expected to do well going forward," he added.
Regionally, Singapore's Straits Times rose 0.47 per cent to 3,292.86, Hong Kong's Hang Seng Index increased 0.76 per cent to 28,224.48, and China's SSE Composite Index improved 2.05 per cent to 2,829.27.
Back home, market breadth was negative with decliners outpacing gainers 481 to 411 with 430 counters unchanged, 613 untraded and 38 others suspended.
Volume decreased to 2.88 billion units valued at RM2.53 billion, from 3.49 billion units valued at RM3.02 billion recorded on Thursday.
PMB Technology's warrants led the gainers' list today, putting on 30 sen to RM1.29, while Heineken was the biggest decliner, giving up 64 sen to RM22.84.
Of the heavyweights, Maybank declined two sen to RM9.79, Tenaga decreased 10 sen to RM14.82, Petronas Chemicals trimmed six sen to RM8.74, CIMB fell five sen to RM5.81, while Public Bank rose four sen to RM23.94.
Among actives, MyEG improved 12 sen to RM1.24, Iskandar Waterfront City gained 6.5 sen to 81 sen, latest debutant on the ACE market, Nova Wellness, increased 21 sen to 76 sen, while MRCB was flat at 71 sen.
The FBM Emas Index fell 21.93 points to 12,420.31, the FBM70 declined 16.89 points to 15,233.24, the FBMT100 Index decreased 27.18 points to 12,209.08, the FBM Emas Shariah Index trimmed 26.65 points to 12,509.51, but the FTSE Bursa Malaysia Small Cap Index added 84.35 points to 14,559.59 and the FBM Ace Index improved 14.56 points to 5,403.27.
Sector-wise, the Finance Index shed 24.42 points to 17,326.35, the Industrial Index eased 5.81 points to 3,214.16, and the Plantation Index was 12.96 points lower at 7,480.23.
Main Market volume decreased to 1.75 billion shares valued at RM2.12 billion, from 2.31 billion shares valued at RM2.72 billion registered on Thursday.
Warrants turnover was lower at 690.2 million units valued at RM232.51 million, versus Thursday's 695.2 million units valued at RM166.36 million.
Volume on the ACE Market slipped to 439.08 million shares valued at RM171.61 million, from 479.42 million shares valued at RM136.09 million recorded yesterday.
Consumer products accounted for 74.94 million shares traded on the Main Market, industrial products (230.47 million), construction (283.68 million), trade and services (639.53 million), technology (118.4 million), infrastructure (22.09 million), SPAC (248,600), finance (54.46 million), hotels (1.47 million), properties (312.88 million), plantations (14.09 million), mining (21,500), REITs (4.22 million) and closed/fund (3,100).
The physical price of gold as at 5.00pm stood at RM154.39 per gramme, up 35 sen from RM154.04 at 5.00pm yesterday. — Bernama