KL shares end the week on a lower note after Wall Street slide

KUALA LUMPUR, March 20 — Share prices on Bursa Malaysia ended lower today in sync with most Asian bourses, taking cue from the fall on Wall Street overnight.

At 5pm, the FTSE Bursa Malaysia KLCI closed 5.48 points lower at 1,803.65 after moving in a broad range of between 1,798.74 and 1,806.90 throughout the day.

Regionally, Hong Kong’s Hang Seng Index contracted 93.65 points to 24,375.24, The Asia Dow index slid 6.96 points to 3,233.87 while Singapore’s STI Index gained 27.48 points to 3,413.64.

On the broader market, losers thumped gainers by 471 to 325 with 314 counters unchanged, 660 untraded and 12 others suspended.

Total volume decreased to 2.12 billion shares worth RM3.14 billion from 2.21 billion shares worth RM1.84 billion yesterday.

Among the heavyweights, Maybank fell eight sen to RM9.15, Public Bank eased four sen to RM18.60, Axiata slid one sen to RM7.04, but TNB rose two sen to RM14.60.

Of the actively-traded stocks, MQ Technology gained 1.5 sen to 17 sen, YFG added 1.5 sen to 11.5 sen, Eti Tech was flat at 10.5 sen and Sumatec fell half-a-sen to 22.5 sen.

The FBM Emas Index decreased 24.36 points to 12,384.24, the FBMT100 Index lost 23.78 points to 12,079.13 and the FBM Emas Syariah Index inched down 5.50 points to 12,983.90.

The FBM Ace trimmed 48.64 points to 6,915.17 but the FBM 70 was 23.39 points better at 13,293.04.

On a sectoral basis, the Industrial Index was down by 6.00 points to 3,321.42, the Plantation Index eased 8.71 points to 7,802 while the Finance Index gave up 64.69 points to 15,968.45.   

Main Market volume increased to 1.38 billion shares worth RM3 billion from yesterday’s 1.17 billion units worth RM1.66 billion.

Turnover on the ACE Market fell to 638.79 million shares valued at RM118.63 million against 949.58 million shares valued at RM161.99 million.

Warrants improved to 102.79 million shares worth RM22.72 million from 89.29 million shares worth RM18.65 million.

Consumer products accounted for 146.06 million shares traded on the Main Market, industrial products (205.53 million), construction (44.34 million), trade and services (626.49 million), technology (150.27 million), infrastructure (21.76 million), SPAC (32.42 million), finance (55.51 million), hotels (6.55 million), properties (57.93 million), plantations (18.49 million), mining (22,100), REITs (14.37 million) and closed/fund (55,500). — Bernama