KUALA LUMPUR, Oct 9 — Bursa Malaysia ended in the red today in line with the weaker performance in most regional markets on lack of positive catalysts, said a dealer.
The benchmark FTSE Bursa Malaysia KLCI (FBM KLCI) fell 1.60 points or 0.09 per cent to end at 1,774.15 versus yesterday’s close of 1,775.75.
The index moved between 1,771.16 and 1,776.68 during the day. It opened 2.72 points weaker at 1,773.03.
On the scoreboard, market breadth was negative with losers leading gainers by 469 to 345, while 413 counters were unchanged, 647 untraded and 23 others suspended.
Volume was thin at 1.80 billion units valued at RM1.53 billion against Monday’s 2.37 billion units valued at RM1.82 billion.
“The local market is on a defensive mode today after a few volatile sessions. We could see defensive stocks such as consumer stocks rising today. The oil and gas stocks were also higher after a few announcements on acquisitions,” said a dealer.
Leading the gainers today was British American Tobacco which rose RM1.48 to RM35.08, United Plantations advanced 50 sen to RM27.66, Fraser & Neave jumped 48 sen to RM37.48 and Amway surged 30 sen to RM7.
Regionally, Hong Kong’s Hang Seng Index was down 0.11 per cent to 26,172.91, Japan’s Nikkei 225 fell 1.32 per cent to 23,469.39 and Singapore’s Straits Times Index slipped 0.57 per cent to 3,163.22.
Of the heavyweights, Petronas Chemicals and Hong Leong Bank added two sen each to RM9.37 and RM20.60, respectively, while Maybank, TNB and CIMB were flat at RM9.65, RM15.38 and RM6.04, respectively.
Public Bank fell two sen to RM24.96, Maxis eased three sen to RM5.67 and IHH Healthcare inched down one sen to RM5.29.
As for actives, Sapura Energy edged up half-a-sen to 37.5 sen, Hibiscus Petroleum jumped 10 sen to RM1.30, Sanbumi rose 2.5 sen to 32.5 sen, Reach Energy went up three sen to 45.5 sen and MYEG was flat at RM1.55.
The FBM Emas Index trimmed 8.16 points to 12,303.92, the FBM Emas Shariah Index declined 11.70 points to 12,360.64 and the FBMT 100 Index eased 8.38 points to 12,118.68.
The FBM Ace Index increased 22.14 points to 5,188.61 while the FBM 70 was almost flat, edging down by 0.02 of-a-point to 14,272.78.
Sector-wise, the Plantation Index added 1.73 points to 7,495.30, the Financial Services Index inched up 0.09 of-a-point to 17,678.69, while the Industrial Products and Services Index was slightly higher by 0.01 of-a-point to 175.06.
Main Market volume declined to 1.23 billion shares worth RM1.41 billion from 1.50 billion shares worth RM1.67 billion yesterday.
Warrants turnover shrank to 316.13 million units valued at RM68.10 million from 497.63 million units valued at RM88.01 million yesterday.
Volume on the ACE Market fell to 258.92 million units worth RM51.89 million against 371.96 million units worth RM64.59 million.
Consumer products and services accounted for 171.78 million shares traded on the Main Market, industrial products and services (264.80 million), construction (120.73 million), technology (106.63 million), SPAC (1.55 million), financial services (42.59 million), property (79.06 million), plantations (9.73 million), REITs (1.97 million), closed/fund (159,900), energy (356.99 million), healthcare (21.98 million), telecommunication and media (15.64 million), transportation and logistics (11.28 million), and utilities (23.82 million). — Bernama
