KUALA LUMPUR, April 4 — Shares in Bursa Malaysia experienced heavy selling in today’s late afternoon session causing the main index to close 1.88 per cent lower, amid fears of a trade war between the United States and China.
The FTSE-Bursa Malaysia Kuala Lumpur Composite Index (FBM KLCI) opened at 1,850 points this morning, but ended the day’s trading at 1,816 points.
The market saw 1,105 losers against 111 gainers, and 227 counters were unchanged. In addition, 428 were untraded and 20 others suspended.
FBM KLCI had hovered between 1,811.56 and 1,851.74 throughout the day.
A dealer reportedly said market sentiment was weakened due to a possible full-blown trade war between US and China, after China retaliated by raising tariffs by up to 25 per cent on selective US food products.
The US had earlier imposed tariffs on steel and aluminium products from China.
“This downward performance is also seen in regional bourses as traders everywhere tend to look for safe haven such as gold and yen in times of geopolitical tension,” state news agency Bernama quoted Maybank Investment Bank Bhd chartist for research Nik Ihsan Raja Abdullah saying.
Among the heavyweights, Maybank was down by 18 sen to RM10.34 and Public Bank shed 6 sen to RM23.90.
For the other shares, PUC Bhd was 3 sen lower at 24 sen, Sapura Energy lost 2.5 sen to 52 sen and Hibiscus Petroleum was down 10.5 sen to 71 sen.
The FBM Emas Index was down 311.7 points to 12,620.48, the FBMT 100 Index was 278.38 points easier at 12,466.66, and the FBM Emas Shariah Index slid 344.59 points to 12,733.92.
The FBM 70 tumbled 495.09 points to 14,923.48 and the FBM Ace gave up 373.05 points to 4,883.83.
Sector-wise, the Finance Index was 441.76 points weaker at 17,711.31 and the Plantation Index was down 95.95 points to 7,901.36 while the Industrial Index declined 28.88 points to 3,191.32.
