KUALA LUMPUR, April 4 — Bursa Malaysia remained negative at mid-afternoon today on weak market sentiment due to a possible full-blown trade war, after China raised tariffs by up to 25 per cent on selective US food products.
At 3.25pm, the FTSE Bursa Malaysia KLCI (FBM KLCI) traded 8.28 points lower at 1,842.5 from Tuesday’s 1,850.35, after opening 4.01 points easier at 1,846.77 today.
Losers led gainers 729 to 171, while 365 counters were unchanged, 606 untraded and 20 others suspended.
Volume stood at 1.6 billion units valued at RM1.18 billion.
A dealer said market players were worried that China’s counter-measure, following the tariffs imposed by the United States on imports of aluminium and steel, would potentially result in a full-blown trade war.
Among heavyweights, Maybank was flat at RM10.52, Public Bank added two sen to RM23.98 and Tenaga was 24 sen better at RM15.88.
For other actives, PUC was 1.5 sen lower at 25.5 sen, Sapura Energy lost 2.5 sen to 52 sen and Hibiscus Petroleum was down three sen to 78.5 sen.
The FBM Emas Index was down 85.73 points to 12,846.44, the FBMT 100 Index was 74.07 points easier at 12,670.97 and the FBM Emas Shariah Index slid 80.29 points to 12,998.22.
The FBM 70 tumbled 147.92 points to 15,270.65 and the FBM Ace gave up 120.83 points to 5,136.05.
Sector-wise, the Finance Index was 101.04 points weaker at 18,052.03 and the Plantation Index was down 27.39 points to 7,969.92 and the Industrial Index declined 16.37 points to 3,203.83. — Bernama
