KUALA LUMPUR: Persistent selling pressure in most heavyweight counters saw Bursa Malaysia ending at an intra-day low today, amid mostly weaker sentiments in the regional stock markets, dealers said.
At the close, the benchmark FTSE Bursa Malaysia KLCI (FBM KLCI) lost 21.07 points to 1,583.68, after hitting a high of 1,596.55 during the day.
On the broader market, losers trumped gainers 730 to 462, while 455 counters were unchanged, 523 untraded and 28 others suspended.
Total volume decreased to 9.53 billion units worth RM4.48 billion from 14.41 billion units worth RM5.09 billion on Wednesday.
A dealer said Asian bourses were on a downtrend today, tracking the losses in the overnight Wall Street as emerging concerns on the economic fallout from rising COVID-19 infections in the United States and Europe clashed with optimism about a possible vaccine.
He said losses accelerated after New York officials announced the closure of public schools following a surge in infections in the city.
“Renewed concerns over the near-term impact of the recent spike in cases has overcome the additional positive developments on the vaccine front,” he said.
Regionally, Japan’s Nikkei 225 dipped 0.36% to 25,634.34, Singapore’s Straits Times Index slipped 0.36% to 2,778.51 and Hong Kong’s Hang Seng Index declined 0.71% to 26,356.97.
On Bursa Malaysia, heavyweights Maybank shed 13 sen to RM8.10, TNB fell 2.0 sen to RM11.24, Public Bank erased 68 sen to RM18.38, Top Glove went down 7.0 sen to RM6.94, while Petronas Chemicals gained 2.0 sen to RM6.77.
Among the actives, AT Systematization and Metronic Global slipped 1.0 sen each to 18 sen and 10.5 sen, respectively, Kanger trimmed 1.5 sen to 18 sen and VSolar eased half-a-sen to 4.5 sen.
On the index board, the FBM Emas Index was 137.51 points lower at 11,376.98, the FBMT 100 Index erased 142.04 points to 11,161.20, the FBM Emas Shariah Index fell 88.45 points to 13,079.89, and the FBM 70 declined 159.92 points to 14,565.34.
The FBM ACE rose 53.58 points to 11,140.68, the Industrial Products and Services Index shed 0.60 of-a-point to 158.39, the Plantation Index trimmed 6.16 points to 7,348.99, and the Financial Services Index lost 357.48 points to 14,007.13.
The Main Market volume slipped to 4.62 billion shares worth RM3.20 billion from 7.18 billion shares worth RM3.64 billion on Wednesday.
Warrants turnover increased to 745.51 million units valued at RM113.47 million from 653.06 million units valued at RM117.27 million yesterday.
Volume on the ACE Market narrowed to 4.16 billion shares worth RM1.16 billion compared with 6.58 billion shares worth RM1.33 billion previously.
Consumer products and services accounted for 718.01 million shares traded on the Main Market, industrial products and services (1.44 billion), construction (197.68 million), technology (678.23 million), SPAC (nil), financial services (67.54 million), property (486.61 million), plantations (172.86 million), REITs (5.59 million), closed/fund (21,900), energy (396.04 million), healthcare (94.26 million), telecommunications and media (86.15 million), transportation and logistics (218 million), and utilities (55.73 million). — Bernama
