KUALA LUMPUR, July 7 — Bursa Malaysia ended lower amid cautious sentiment over high Covid-19 infection level with more than 7,000 new cases reported today.  

At 5pm, the benchmark FTSE Bursa Malaysia KLCI (FBM KLCI) eased 1.48 points or 0.10 per cent to 1,530.15 from yesterday’s close of 1,531.63. 

The market bellwether opened 0.67 of-a-point lower at 1,530.96 and moved between 1,523.42 and 1,531.03 throughout the day.

On the broader market, losers outpaced gainers 568 to 383, while 463 counters were unchanged, 765 untraded and 10 others suspended.

Turnover decreased to 4.80 billion units worth RM2.73 billion from yesterday’s 6.75 billion units worth RM3.65 billion.

Malaysia recorded 7,097 new infection cases today, marking the second consecutive day with cases surpassing 7,000.

A dealer said all eyes were also on Bank Negara Malaysia’s decision on the interest rate tomorrow.

"But the market has already priced in that the central bank would maintain the current Overnight Policy Rate at 1.75 per cent,” he added.

Among the heavyweights, IHH Healthcare advanced six sen to RM5.62, CIMB gained one sen to RM4.60, and Petronas Chemicals and TNB were flat at RM8.09 and RM9.71, respectively, while Maybank fell four sen to RM8.06 and Public Bank eased two sen to RM4.08.

Of the actives, Pelikan jumped 9.5 sen to 45.5 sen, Pasukhas went up 1.5 sen to 35.5 sen, Boustead Holdings bagged four sen to 70 sen, Metronic Global eased 1.5 sen to four sen, Serba Dinamik shed three sen to 48 sen, and Privasia trimmed two sen to 24 sen. 

On the index board, the FBM Emas Index narrowed 4.09 points to 11,166.12 and the FBMT 100 Index declined 2.05 points to 10,867.5, but the FBM Emas Shariah Index increased 4.59 points to 12,213.72. 

The FBM ACE strengthened 21.49 points to 7,440.74 and the FBM 70 was 30.49 points stronger at 14,508.09.

Sector-wise, the Financial Services Index decreased 15.45 points to 15,050.21, the Industrial Products and Services Index edged down 0.09 of-a-point to 190.22, and the Plantation Index trimmed 15.42 points to 6,372.94.  

Main Market volume fell to 3.46 billion shares valued to RM2.28 billion from yesterday’s 4.73 billion shares valued at RM2.96 billion.  

Warrants turnover declined to 190.05 million units worth RM21.90 million from 226.05 million units worth RM24.41 million yesterday.

Volume on the ACE Market dipped to 1.14 billion shares worth RM425.29 million from 1.80 billion shares worth RM666.18 million.

Consumer products and services accounted for 813.36 million shares traded on the Main Market, industrial products and services 1.23 billion), construction (10.34 million), technology (334.45 million), SPAC (nil), financial services (40.33 million), property (189.48 million), plantation (33.74 million), REITs (6.09 million), closed/fund (25,800), energy (495.05 million), healthcare (59.60 million), telecommunications and media (82.21 million), transportation and logistics (50.51 million), and utilities (31.14 million). — Bernama