KUALA LUMPUR, April 5 — Bursa Malaysia bucked the regional market trend to end lower today, weighed down by profit-taking in selected heavyweights led by financial services and healthcare sectors.

At 5pm, the FTSE Bursa Malaysia KLCI (FBM KLCI) was 1.10 points weaker at 1,584.24 from Friday’s close of 1,585.35.

The index opened 0.46 of-a-point easier at 1,584.89 and moved between 1,582.20 and 1,590.67 throughout the trading session.

However, market breadth was slightly positive with gainers leading losers 542 versus 532, while 419 counters were unchanged, 638 untraded and eight others suspended.

Total volume increased to 7.84 billion shares valued at RM2.80 billion from 6.62 billion shares valued at RM2.92 billion on Friday.

Regionally, Singapore’s Straits Times Index gained 0.87 per cent to 3,209.29, Japan’s Nikkei 225 was 0.79 per cent better at 30,089.25, South Korea’s Kospi edged up 0.26 per cent to 3,120.83, while markets in Shanghai, Hong Kong and Australia were closed for holidays.

A dealer said the local bourse opened easier but turned positive thereafter, before succumbing to profit-taking during the mid-morning session in choppy trade to end the session lower, bucking the regional peers which were mostly higher on Monday.

The regional bourses took the cue from Wall Street which hit a record high last Thursday before closing for holiday on Friday on recovery theme, while tracking the US futures indices which were boosted by solid US job data on Friday, he noted.

Maybank Investment Bank senior chartist Nik Ihsan Raja Abdullah told Bernama the FBM KLCI was again dragged down by rubber gloves index-linked stocks on the potential exclusion of one of the glove stocks from the FBM KLCI component list in the next review, which dampened traders’ interest.

"Additionally, with various new players jumping into the rubber glove industry, resulting in continued increase in the overall supply post-Covid-19, this has also been putting more pressure on rubber glove stocks,” he said.

Meanwhile, the market was supported by construction sector with the Construction Index rallying 2.24 per cent today.

The news that the Government had given the green light for the Klang Valley Mass Rapid Transit (KVMRT) Line 3 and the Transport Ministry’s announcement today that the East Coast Rail Link (ECRL) will revert to the original alignment had boosted sentiment in construction counters, he added.

Of the heavyweights, Maybank rose nine sen to RM8.34 and IHH Healthcare added four sen to RM5.33.

Public Bank dipped two sen to RM4.22, Petronas Chemicals eased one sen to RM7.99, and Tenaga shed four sen to RM10.22.

Among the active counters, Parkson was three sen better at 28 sen and Matang added one sen to 13 sen.

Focus Dynamic warrant eased half-a-sen to one sen, Berjaya slid one sen to 44 sen, and Dagang NeXchange slipped 4.5 sen to 86 sen.

On the index board, the FBM Emas Index improved 12.35 points to 11,755.45, the FBM 70 surged 88.95 points to 15,818.27, the FBM Emas Shariah advanced 13.45 points to 13,019.30, the FBMT 100 rose 11.21 points to 11,404.57, while the FBM ACE dropped 80.78 points to 9,708.34.

Sector-wise, the Plantation Index went down 14.22 points to 7,031.32, the Industrial Products and Services Index eased 0.07 of-a-point to 193.95 but the Financial Services Index increased 23.67 points to 15,300.23.

Main Market volume rose to 4.03 billion shares worth RM2.34 billion from last Friday’s 3.92 billion shares worth RM2.39 billion.

Warrants turnover improved to 196.23 million units valued at RM25.67 million from 194.35 million units valued at RM21.03 million previously.

Volume on the ACE Market increased to 3.61 billion shares worth RM436.54 million from 2.50 billion shares worth RM513.85 million last Friday.

Consumer products and services accounted for 952.68 million shares traded on the Main Market, industrial products and services (1.06 billion), construction (238.27 million), technology (492.67 million), SPAC (nil), financial services (101.0 million), property (593.62 million), plantations (20.31 million), REITs (8.22 million), closed/fund (28,100), energy (394.30 million), healthcare (26.04 million), telecommunications and media (31.11 million), transportation and logistics (86.04 million), and utilities (21.29 million). — Bernama