KUALA LUMPUR, Sept 12 — Bursa Malaysia gave up early gains to end lower after a long weekend as investors were cautious on the escalating trade war between China and the US, dealers said.
The benchmark FTSE Bursa Malaysia KLCI (FBM KLCI) lost 13.92 points to end at 1,785.25, after fluctuating between 1,780.91 and 1,822.68 throughout the day.
The index opened 11.02 points higher at 1,810.19 from Friday’s closing of 1,799.17.
The market resumed trading today after two days of public holidays on Monday, in lieu of the Yang di-Pertuan Agong’s birthday on Sunday, and yesterday for Awal Muharram.
On the broader market, losers trounced gainers 896 to 166, with 277 counters unchanged, 544 untraded and 44 others suspended.
Volume rose to 2.23 billion units worth RM2.81 billion from 1.73 billion units worth RM1.64 billion last Friday.
A dealer said the market was cautious following news that the US President Donald Trump is set to slap another tariffs on a further US$267 billion worth of Chinese imports into America, if he desired, .
“Market sentiment was negatively impacted as investors are keeping their eye on the next move by the Chinese government,” he said.
It was reported that China would seek permission from the World Trade Organisation to impose sanctions on the US soon.
Of heavyweights, Maybank fell nine sen to RM9.80, Public Bank was down eight sen to RM24.92, Tenaga rose two sen to RM15.82 and PChem was flat at RM9.43.
Among actives, Sapura Energy rose two sen to 35.5 sen, Borneo Oil climbed half-a-sen to six sen, MyEG declined 13 sen to RM1.50 while Nexgram was flat at 2.5 sen.
Separately, Bursa Malaysia announced that the exchange and its subsidiaries will be closed on Monday, Sept 17, 2018 in lieu of Malaysia Day which falls on Sunday, Sept 16, and will resume operations on Tuesday, Sept 18.
The FBM Emas Index erased 138.87 points to 12,423.56, the FBMT 100 Index dropped 129.10 points to 12,252.46, the FBM 70 fell 281.55 points to 14,655.27, the FBM Ace Index went down 91.45 points to 5,055.27 while the FBM Emas Shariah Index fell 152.04 points to 12,531.49.
Sector-wise, the Finance Index declined 110.37 points to 17,685.74, the Plantation Index slid 39.66 points to 7,465.17 and the Industrial Index shed 14.54 points to 3,207.01.
Main Market volume increased to 1.46 billion shares worth RM2.65 billion from 1.13 billion shares worth RM1.50 billion last Friday.
Warrants turnover improved to 449.46 million units worth RM102.34 million versus 378.42 million units worth RM101.66 million previously.
Volume on the ACE Market advanced to 319.48 million shares worth RM51.22 million compared with 219.37 million shares worth RM36.12 million last Friday.
Consumer products accounted for 80.74 million shares traded on the Main Market, industrial products (279.47 million), construction (91.78 million), trade and services (707.38 million), technology (93.40 million), infrastructure (9.1 million), SPAC (508,500), finance (79.81 million), hotels (1.69 million), properties (92.06 million), plantations (19.37 million), mining (45,000), REITs (5.97 million) and closed/fund (9,200). — Bernama
