KUALA LUMPUR, April 1 — It was no laughing matter that financial stocks lost 231.76 points or 1.37 per cent in trading on April Fool’s Day today, dragging Bursa Malaysia to close lower and bucking the regional trend, a dealer said.
The benchmark FTSE Bursa Malaysia KLCI (FBM KLCI) ended at 1,628.66, 14.97 points weaker compared with Friday’s close of 1,643.63.
The index opened 2.8 points higher at 1,646.43 and moved between 1,628.44 and 1,647.59 throughout the day.
Market breadth was, however, positive with gainers outnumbering decliners 445 to 411, while 378 counters remained unchanged, 623 were untraded and 19 others were suspended.
Volume increased to 2.63 billion units worth RM1.97 billion from 2.47 billion units worth RM2.24 billion last Friday.
A dealer told Bernama that finance stocks were badly hit today due to, among others, profit taking after the local bourse made some gains last week, tracking the Wall Street.
“On top of that, Public Bank, which has the biggest weightage among FBM KLCI components, saw its share price weakened further after a rating agency downgraded it. At the close, shares of Public Bank declined by 68 sen to RM22.48, followed by Hong Leong which lost 32 sen to RM19.98.
“Basically, our finance sector is currently under pressure, as its growth is not as strong as in the previous years. I think this sector is now in its maturing stage,” he told Bernama.
Asked if today’s stock market performance was the result of a report today quoting former finance minister Tun Daim Zainuddin on the need for a consolidation of local banks, he begged to differ.
The dealer echoed that consolidation was the way to go for local banks but added: “I think the process is ongoing. The banks are actively looking.”
In an interview with a local newspaper, Daim was reported as suggesting in 1998 having only four big banks as he believed that a certain size was needed in order to weather financial storms that happened about every decade.
Of the heavyweights, Maybank slipped seven sen to RM9.20, PChem and Tenaga eased four sen each to RM9.12 and RM12.62, respectively, while Maxis rose one sen to RM5.37.
Among actives, Konsortium Transnasional added nine sen to 17.5 sen, Sapura improved one sen to 34.5 sen, and Gets Global inched up 1.5 sen to 35 sen; but Bumi Armada was half-a-sen weaker at 18.5 sen.
The FBM Emas Index fell 73.44 points to 11,480.40, the FBM Emas Shariah Index eased 15.12 points to 11,672.94, and FBMT 100 decreased 79.05 points to 11,328.30.
The FBM Ace Index narrowed 8.21 points to 4,823.94 but the FBM 70 was 2.23 points higher at 14,214.87.
Sector-wise, the Industrial Products and Services Index was 0.18 point weaker at 168.75, the Financial Services Index erased 231.76 points to 16,737.37 while the Plantation Index was 2.03 points better at 7,188.14.
Main Market volume increased to 1.93 billion shares worth RM1.82 billion from 1.68 billion shares worth RM2.07 billion.
Warrants dropped to 413.77 million units valued at RM87.86 million versus 505.03 million units valued at RM106.82 million.
Volume on the ACE Market declined to 277.44 million shares worth RM58.07 million compared with 282.91 million shares worth RM59.35 million.
Consumer products and services accounted for 489.37 million shares traded on the Main Market, industrial products and services (305.49 million), construction (216.42 million), technology (154.63 million), SPAC (nil), financial services (46.44 million), property (152.84 million), plantation (14.90 million), REITs (10.69 million), closed/fund (24,700), energy (399.38 million), healthcare (26.31 million), telecommunications and media (27.09 million), transportation and logistics (71 million), and utilities (19.89 million). — Bernama
