KUALA LUMPUR, March 12 — Bursa Malaysia ended the week at the day’s low today,  succumbing to selling pressure in heavyweight counters led by the financial services and healthcare sectors, dealers said.

At 5pm, the benchmark FBM KLCI fell 13.72 points to 1,615.69 from Thursday’s close of 1,629.41.

The key index opened 1.18 points up at 1,630.59 and moved between 1,615.69 and 1,632.01 throughout the day.

However, market breadth was positive with gainers leading losers 631 to 530, while 468 counters were unchanged, 575 untraded and 18 others suspended.

Total volume increased to 9.64 billion units worth RM5.51 billion from Thursday’s 9.53 billion units worth RM5.44 billion. 

A dealer said the regional markets ended mixed despite trading firmer in earlier session in tracking the gains on the overnight Wall Street after US President Joe Biden signed the US$1.9 trillion stimulus bill.

"Worries about rising inflation also receded following bigger-than-expected fall in weekly jobless claims in the US,” he said.

Japan’s Nikkei was 1.73 per cent higher at 29,717.83, Singapore’s Straits Times Index slipped 0.34 per cent to 3,095.51 and South Korea’s Kospi advanced 1.35 per cent to 3,054.39, but Hong Kong’s Hang Seng Index slipped 2.20 per cent to 28,739.72.

On the local front, after attempting a rebound from yesterday’s losses at the opening, the local bourse subsequently turned easier and remained in the red for the rest of the trading session, but bargain hunting among the lower liners continued to support the broader market, the dealer added.

Bank Islam Malaysia Bhd economist Adam Mohamed Rahim told Bernama that the FBM KLCI continued its descent by 0.84 per cent as investors continued cashing in on gains.

"This was in contrast with other regional peers which recorded gains such as China, Japan, South Korea, the Philippines and Indonesia

"Sector-wise, banking stocks continued to come under pressure as banking counters under the FBM KLCI namely CIMB, RHB, Maybank, RHB Bank, Hong Leong and Public Bank were in the red on Friday, dragging the Bursa Malaysia Financial Services Index down by 1.09 per cent, making it the second largest decliner after the healthcare index.

Among the heavyweights, Maybank fell 15 sen to RM8.40, Public Bank shed two sen to RM4.32 and IHH Healthcare dropped 11 sen to RM5.20.

Petronas Chemicals rose seven sen to RM8.27, while Tenaga was flat at RM10.80.

Of the actives, Dagang Nexchange advanced 10 sen to 97 sen and its warrant added one sen to 37 sen, XOX edged up half-a-sen to seven sen, AT Systematization added 1.5 sen to 13 sen, while EA Holdings was flat at 3.5 sen.

On the index board, the FBM Emas Index fell 72.63 points to 11,862.13, the FBMT 100 declined 78.02 points to 11,538.87, the FBM Emas Shariah lost 53.47 points to 13,136.0 and the FBM 70 reduced 28.32 points to 15,652.0. 

The FBM ACE surged 222.07 points to 10,665.19. 

Sector-wise, the Financial Services Index dropped 171.96 points to 15,549.86 and the Plantation Index shaved 52.94 points to 7,136.78, while the Industrial Products and Services Index gained 1.28 points to 192.10.

Main Market volume fell to 6.1 billion shares worth RM4.53 billion from Thursday’s 7.23 billion shares worth RM4.78 billion.     

Warrants turnover reduced to 405.30 million units worth RM73.80 million from 410.41 million units worth RM61.69 million yesterday.   

Volume on the ACE Market surged to 3.14 billion shares worth RM908.3 million from 1.88 billion shares worth RM594.89 million previously.   

Consumer products and services accounted for 1.26 billion shares traded on the Main Market, industrial products and services (1.11 billion), construction (284.94 million), technology (1.92 billion), SPAC (nil), financial services (121.68 million), property (422.01 million), plantations (76.74 million), REITs (11.35 million), closed/fund (18,500), energy (570.97 million), healthcare (62.57 million), telecommunications and media (57.21 million), transportation and logistics (128.3 million), and utilities (79.3 million). — Bernama