KUALA LUMPUR, May 9 — Bursa Malaysia finished lower with the key index in negative territory dragged down by MISC and profit-taking by selected heavyweights.

AllianceDBS Research, which downgraded MISC’s rating from “buy” to “hold”, said there were unexciting growth prospects for the company, following the stronger ringgit against the US dollar early this year and the plateauing of petroleum and liquefied natural gas (LNG) shipping rates.

“While the company is shifting its focus towards merger and acquisition (M&A) activities, the acquisitions announced so far have not helped to re-rate the stock,” it said in a note today.

At 5pm, the benchmark FTSE Bursa Malaysia KLCI (FBM KLCI) was 17.17 points lower at 1,632.19 from 1,649.36 on Friday.

After opening 1.99 points lower at 1,647.37, the index moved between 1,651.61 and 1,632.19 throughout the morning session.

Losers outnumbered gainers 483 to 336 while 341 counters were unchanged, 543 untraded and seven others suspended.

Volume rose to 1.68 billion shares worth RM1.54 billion from Friday’s 1.57 billion shares valued at RM1.82 billion.

Meanwhile, Hong Leong Investment Bank said the local key index may stage a technical rebound in the near term based on hourly and daily charts.

“Technically, the “positive divergence” pattern and bottoming-up oscillators on hourly and daily charts respectively may ignite a higher likelihood of a rebound,” it said in a note.

Of the losers, MISC slipped RM1.09 to RM7.25, Petronas Gas declined 70 sen to RM20.90 and Petronas Dagangan fell 40 sen to RM23.00.

Among heavyweights, Maybank gained nine sen to RM8.76, TNB erased two sen to RM14.12, Public Bank rose 10 sen to RM19.06 and IHH Healthcare fell three sen to RM6.51.

Of the active stocks, AirAsia X added 1.5 sen to 37.5 sen, Vivocom advanced one sen to 34.5 sen and AirAsia was up eight sen to RM2.10.

The FBM Emas Index shed 79.12 points to 11,515.33, the FBMT100 Index decreased 80.28 points to 11,127.70 and the FBM Emas Shariah Index lost 148.30 points to 11,908.25.

However, the FBM 70 was 37.09 points higher at 12,978.18, the FBM Ace added 23.50 points to 5,693.71 and the Finance Index firmed 26.37 points to 14,511.00.

The Plantation Index eased 59.98 points to 7,491.44 and the Industrial Index shrank 107.58 points to 3,029.15.

Main Market turnover remained at 1.02 billion units worth RM1.44 billion, from Friday’s 1.02 billion units valued at RM1.73 billion.

The ACE Market turnover was better at 486.19 million units worth RM81.90 million, from 398.94 million units valued at RM60.92 million recorded on Friday.

Warrants increased to 172.13 million units worth RM20.74 million, from 154.78 million units valued at RM23.36 million registered last week.

Consumer products accounted for 103.20 million shares traded on the Main Market, industrial products (216.93 million), construction (48.09 million), trade and services (460.13 million), technology (37.59 million), infrastructure (12.05 million), SPAC (29.90 million), finance (30.87 million), hotels (1.43 million), properties (69.85 million), plantations (13.77 million), mining (25,00), REITs (4.65 million) and closed/fund (20,000). — Bernama