KUALA LUMPUR, May 3 — Bursa Malaysia ended the day weaker on persistent profit-taking seen in almost all heavyweight counters, led by Top Glove, IHH and Hartalega.

At 5pm, the FTSE Bursa Malaysia KLCI (FBM KLCI) fell 10.92 points to 1,590.73 from Friday’s close of 1,601.65.

The index opened 0.44 of-a-point firmer at 1,602.09 — the highest level of the day — and fell as low as 1,588.89 throughout the day.

Market breadth remained negative with losers thumping gainers 912 to 301, while 350 counters were unchanged, 590 untraded and five others suspended.

Total volume fell to 6.68 billion shares worth RM4.26 billion from 6.75 billion shares worth RM4.61 billion last Friday.

Bank Islam Malaysia Bhd economist Adam Mohamed Rahim said the local bourse was dragged by glove counters of the index namely Top Glove, Hartalega and Supermax which all declined by more than two per cent on Monday.

"The 268,000 slots for the voluntary vaccination programme using the AstraZeneca vaccine were fully booked on Sunday, indicating that there is no hesitancy to undertake the vaccine.

"As such, sentiment towards glove players were dented as such response towards the voluntary programme gave an impression that the demand for gloves usage will be lower post vaccination,” he told Bernama.

Apart from that, the state-level restrictions aimed at stemming infections in India have led to a drop in fuel sales in the world’s third largest consumer in April, offsetting optimism about a strong rebound in consumption in the second half of the year, he said.

Meanwhile, Rakuten Trade Sdn Bhd head of research Kenny Yee told Bernama that today’s performance was mainly due to the lack of fresh catalysts plus weak regional markets.

"Investors are also concerned that Wall Street may see some correction after a strong performance last Friday.

"As for the FBM KLCI, we expect it to see a rebound and hover around the 1,595-1,610 range,” he said.

Regionally, Singapore’s Straits Times Index fell 1.04 per cent to 3,184.94, South Korea’s Kospi went down 0.66 per cent to 3,127.20 and Hong Kong’s Hang Seng eased 1.28 per cent to 28,357.54.

Of the heavyweights, Maybank gained four sen to RM8.27, Public Bank eased two sen to RM4.13 and Top Glove fell 17 sen to RM5.48.

Of the actives, LKL bagged 4.5 sen to 38.5 sen, Hiap Teck gained three sen to 66.5 sen while Priceworth erased one sen to 1.5 sen.

On the index board, the FBM Emas Index was 90.81 points easier at 11,707.48, the FBM Emas Shariah Index dropped 124.52 points to 13,147.98, the FBMT 100 Index lost 89.32 points to 11,360.84, the FBM 70 slipped 164.90 points to 15,411.24, and the FBM ACE contracted 135.41 points to 8,710.61.

Sector-wise, the Industrial Products and Services Index decreased 1.42 points to 197.94, the Plantation Index added 17.56 points to 6,917.25, and the Financial Services Index shed 23.09 points to 14,847.16.

Main Market volume improved to 3.94 billion shares worth RM3.19 billion compared with 3.85 billion shares worth RM3.65 billion last Friday.

Warrants turnover decreased to 338.94 million units valued at RM39.42 million from 392.21 million units valued at RM43.61 million previously.

Volume on the ACE Market eased to 2.41 billion shares worth RM1.03 billion from 2.50 billion shares worth RM922.66 million.

Consumer products and services accounted for 473.58 million shares traded on the Main Market, industrial products and services (1.76 billion), construction (145.51 million), technology (382.52 million), SPAC (nil), financial services (50.86 million), property (378.78 million), plantation (114.99 million), REITs (6.38 million), closed/fund (2,000), energy (169.52 million), healthcare (122.73 million), telecommunications and media (92.31 million), transportation and logistics (213.94 million), and utilities (23.51 million). — Bernama