KUALA LUMPUR, March 4 — Bursa Malaysia ended lower, dragged by the weaker share prices of selected heavyweights led by Tenaga, Petronas Chemicals and Maxis.
At 5pm, the FTSE Bursa Malaysia KLCI (FBM KLCI) stood at 1,693.99, down 6.77 points or 0.40 per cent, from 1,700.76 at Friday’s close.
The benchmark index opened 12.54 points lower at 1,688.87 and moved between 1,688.22 and 1,698.87 throughout the day.
On the scoreboard, market breadth was negative with 448 losers to 426 gainers while 384 counters remained unchanged, 611 untraded and 18 others were suspended.
Total volume was higher at 3.14 billion units valued at RM2.16 billion against last Friday’s 2.91 billion units worth RM2.35 billion.
Tenaga declined 12 sen to RM12.96 while both Petronas Chemicals and Maxis shed eight sen each to RM9.19 and RM5.31, respectively.
Cumulatively, the three counters contributed 3.4 points to the composite index.
“The local bourse bucked the trend to perform well like its Asian peers, which were mostly higher following the better-than-expected US economic growth. I think this could be linked to the poor corporate results for 2018 that was released last week.
“Tenaga, for example, posted its first quarterly loss in more than seven years on higher operating cost and increased impairment of financial instruments,” a dealer said.
The utility company recorded a net loss of RM134 million for the three months ended Dec, 31, 2018.
Other heavyweights, Maybank rose one sen to RM9.54, Public Bank slipped two sen to RM25.00, CIMB eased four sen to RM5.64 while IHH shed one to RM5.78.
Of actives, Daya Materials and Bumi Armada were both flat at half-a-sen and 17.5 sen, respectively, Sapura Energy edged up half-a-sen to 32 sen and Iskandar Waterfront City improved 11 sen to 71 sen.
The FBM Emas Index decreased 31.51 points to 11,766.61, the FBMT 100 Index fell 37.10 points to 11,626.85 and the FBM Emas Shariah Index shed 36.87 points to 11,688.29.
The FBM 70 slipped 5.82 points to 13,956.07 but the FBM Ace Index appreciated 31.24 points to 4,681.50.
Sector-wise, the Financial Services Index fell 7.24 points to 17,722.22, the Plantation Index eased 7.94 points to 7,266.00 while the Industrial Products and Services Index shed 0.43 of-a-point to 167.94.
Main Market volume increased to 2.20 billion shares valued at RM1.94 billion from 2.02 billion shares worth RM2.17 billion recorded previously.
Warrants turnover rose to 586.41 million units valued at RM139.31 million from Friday's 522.14 million units worth RM109.25 million.
Volume on the ACE Market decreased to 346.79 million shares worth RM77.92 million from 358.23 million shares worth RM68.27 million.
Consumer products and services accounted for 204.70 million shares traded on the Main Market, industrial products and services (311.42 million), construction (155.66 million), technology (166.20 million), SPAC (nil), financial services (55.56 million), property (199.64 million), plantation (28.50 million), REITs (1.50 million), closed/fund (2,000), energy (967.00 million), healthcare (24.50 million), telecommunications and media (30.96 million), transportation and logistics (40.52 million), and utilities (18.63 million).— Bernama
