KUALA LUMPUR, Sept 10 — Bursa Malaysia closed in negative territory today, dragged down mainly by the sharp fall of Axiata and Digi shares following the termination of the proposed Axiata-Telenor mega-merger.

At the close, the benchmark FTSE Bursa Malaysia KLCI (FBM KLCI) was 8.62 points weaker at 1,595.85 compared with Friday’s close of 1,604.47.

The market barometer, which opened 13.64 points lower at 1,590.83, moved between 1,590.83 and 1,597.78 throughout the day.

Inter-Pacific Securities Sdn Bhd head of research Pong Teng Siew said the market was trading below the psychological level of 1,600, undermined by foreign selling.

"I’m not giving up hope that it would recover ground again and move above 1,600 because the selling is mostly done among the foreign funds. So, it’s the intensity of the selling that seemed to move the index down,” he told Bernama.

In addition, he said the performance of US stock market also impacted the local market, with the FBM KLCI giving up all of Friday’s gains to hover below the 1,600 level. (The market was closed yesterday in conjunction with Yang di-Pertuan Agong Al-Sultan Abdullah Ri’ayatuddin Al-Mustafa Billah Shah’s birthday.)

Having said that, Pong said, there was steady interest in consumer-related stocks, which are defensive.

Among heavyweights, Axiata was 15.78 per cent or 77 sen lower at RM4.11 and Digi dropped 29 sen to RM4.60.

"The view has been that Axiata would profit more from the mega-merger deal. So the cancellation resulted in Axiata dropping more than Digi,” Pong said.

Bursa Malaysia today has suspended short selling under proprietary day trading (PDT) and intraday short selling (IDSSS) of Axiata Group Bhd, following the drop in its share price.

The short-selling under PDT and IDSS will be activated on Wednesday, Sept 11, at 8.30am.

Maybank rose 11 sen to RM8.86, Tenaga added 18 sen to RM14.00 and Nestle was 20 sen better at RM146.90.

Of the actives, Bumi Armada gained three sen to 28.5 sen, Green Packet went up 1.5 sen to 24 sen and Sapura Energy was one sen higher at 28 sen.

The FBM Emas Index declined 39.33 points to 11,241.79, the FBMT100 Index was 40.06 points lower at 11,080.60 and the FBM Emas Shariah Index edged down 79.86 points to 11,746.43.

The FBM Ace advanced 22.11 points to 4,479.49 and the FBM 70 went up 32.02 points to 13,820.47.

Sector-wise, the Financial Services Index gained 37.53 points to 15,516.70, the Plantation Index inched up 20.27 points to 6,827.21 and the Industrial Products and Services Index was 0.08 of-a-point down at 149.04.

Market breadth was negative as losers led gainers 458 to 345, with 356 counters unchanged, 787 untraded and 15 others suspended.

Turnover was higher at 2.19 billion units worth RM1.92 billion compared with 1.67 billion units worth RM1.44 billion last Friday.

Main Market volume rose to 1.51 billion shares valued at RM1.79 billion from 1.04 billion shares valued at RM1.30 billion last Friday.

Warrants turnover inched up to 389.84 million worth RM78.67 million compared to 365.06 million units worth RM80.29 million previously.

Volume on the ACE Market, meanwhile, widened to 285.81 million shares valued at RM53.62 million from 257.20 million shares valued at RM56.63 million previously.

Consumer products and services accounted for 204.88 million shares traded on the Main Market, industrial products and services (222.30 million), construction (54.51 million), technology (74.88 million), SPAC (nil), financial services (42.19 million), property (99.41 million), plantations (12.59 million), REITs (9.09 million), closed/fund (11,000), energy (530.52 million), healthcare (15.40 million), telecommunications and media (180.90 million), transportation and logistics (52.61 million), and utilities (15.05 million). — Bernama