KUALA LUMPUR, June 29 — Bursa Malaysia ended on easier note today with the key index closed at its lowest level so far this year on persistent selling pressures across-the-board, dealers said.
Amid weak internal and external sentiments, the FTSE Bursa Malaysia KLCI fell 18.55 points to close at 1,691.92, after fluctuating between 1,688.44 and 1,709.35 throughout the day.
The benchmark index closed at its lowest level at 1,673.94 in December 16, 2014.
Mercury Securities Head of Research, Edmund Tham, said the local stock market was impacted by concerns over Greece’s debt default.
He said sentiment was also affected by the likelihood of Fitch Ratings credit-rating downgrade of Malaysia.
“Everything is going to alright if the International Monetary Fund comes forward to solve Greece’s problem,” he told Bernama.
Affin Hwang Investment Bank vice-president and head of retail research, Datuk Dr Nazri Khan, expected the current market condition to normalise within one or two weeks.
On the external front, he said, the breakdown of bailout talks between Greece and foreign lenders affected worldwide sentiments and impacted the regional stock markets.
Market breadth was subdued with losers thumped gainers by 823 to 126, with 188 counters unchanged, 703 untraded and 62 others were suspended.
Total volume increased to 1.67 billion units, worth RM1.71 billion, from Friday’s 1.35 billion units worth RM1.43 billion.
Of the heavyweights, Maybank eased eight sen to RM9.14, Public Bank fell 18 sen to RM18.54, Axiata declined three sen to RM6.43 and Tenaga was down six sen to RM12.60.
Among the top losers, Nestle down 88 sen to RM71.20, Dutch Lady and Petronas Gas fell 28 sen each to RM45.32 and RM21.20, respectively.
Newly-listed mobile service enabler, Sedania, was among actively-traded stocks. It closed at 41.5 sen, up 3.5 sen, with 31.30 million shares traded.
Sedania debut at 40 sen for a two-sen premium, on the ACE Market.
Other actives were Scan, which eased half-a-sen to nine sen and KNM went down 3.5 sen to 59.5 sen. — Bernama
