KUALA LUMPUR, July 14 — Bursa Malaysia ended on a lower note today with most indices staying in the negative zone as the overall market sentiment remained weak.

At 5pm, the benchmark FTSE Bursa Malaysia KLCI (FBM KLCI) fell 0.47 per cent or 7.24 points to 1,512.32 from yesterday’s close of 1,519.56.   

The market bellwether however opened 1.21 points higher at 1,520.77. The key index moved between 1,509.57 and 1,522.87 throughout the trading session.

On the broader market, losers led gainers 542 to 411, while 465 counters were unchanged, 809 untraded, and nine others suspended.

Turnover decreased to 4.37 billion units valued at RM2.99 billion from yesterday’s 4.54 billion units worth RM2.53 billion.

An analyst said as the number of Covid-19 cases saw a drastic increase, with 11,618 cases recorded today and 11,079 cases on Tuesday, the government is likely to extend the enhanced movement control order (EMCO) in Selangor.

"This will put more pressure on the small and medium enterprises (SMEs) as well as the manufacturing and construction sectors wherein a longer lockdown will spark an increase in the unemployment rate,” she told Bernama.

Meanwhile, Rakuten Trade Sdn Bhd head of equity sales Vincent Lau said besides the persistently high Covid-19 cases, the local equity market also mirrored the performance of its regional peers, which declined as investors evaluate the US inflation data which jumped 0.9 per cent month-on-month in June.

Among the heavyweights, Maybank and Public Bank shed one sen each to RM8.05 and RM4.07 respectively, Petronas Chemicals declined seven sen to RM8.03, TNB shed four sen to RM9.62, while IHH was flat at RM5.64 and CIMB increased three sen to RM4.53.

As for most active counters, Pasukhas dipped 10 sen to 23 sen, Serba Dinamik fell 3.5 sen to 41 sen, and Lambo was flat at one sen.

On the index board, the FBM Emas Index slipped 27.00 points to 11,028.49, the FBMT 100 Index decreased 28.56 points to 10,744.60, and the FBM Emas Shariah Index slid 20.52 points to 12,076.07.   

The FBM ACE however leapt 31.87 points to 7,105.15 and the FBM 70 rose 51.27 points to 14,358.58.

Sector-wise, the Financial Services Index slipped 52.05 points to 14,884.10, the Industrial Products and Services Index edged down 0.22 of-a-point to 186.83, and the Plantation Index was 24.80 points lower at 6,217.33.  

Main Market volume declined to 2.50 billion shares worth RM2.39 billion from 2.55 billion shares valued at RM1.92 billion yesterday.    

Warrants turnover went down to 224.72 million units valued at RM27.94 million from 269.89 million units worth RM27.82 million previously.

Volume on the ACE Market narrowed to 1.64 billion shares worth RM573.71 million against yesterday’s 1.71 billion shares valued at RM579.47 million.

Consumer products and services accounted for 406.50 million shares traded on the Main Market, industrial products and services (827.54 million), construction (106.37 million), technology (359.71 million), SPAC (nil), financial services (59.30 million), property (137.57 million), plantation (16.56 million), REITs (4.32 million), closed/fund (5,000), energy (389.67 million), healthcare (92.0 million), telecommunications and media (34.46 million), transportation and logistics (59.88 million), and utilities (14.22 million). — Bernama