KUALA LUMPUR, May 3 — Bursa Malaysia extended yesterday’s losses with profit-taking in selected blue-chips counters such as TNB and Hong Leong Bank.
At 9.05am, the benchmark FTSE Bursa Malaysia KLCI (FBM KLCI) fell 1.03 point to 1,631.21, from yesterday’s close of 1,632.24.
The benchmark index opened 0.71 of-a-point lower at 1,631.53.
On the broader market, losers led gainers 143 to 82, with 159 counters unchanged, 1,521 untraded and 18 others suspended.
Turnover stood at 105.49 million shares worth RM96.32 million.
Dealers said the weaker performance on Bursa Malaysia was in line with regional peers while at the same time tracking the overnight weaker performance on Wall Street which was weighed down by the sliding energy shares and oil prices.
The benchmark Brent crude slipped 3.3 per cent to US$69.79 a barrel while West Texas Intermediate fared worse, tumbling four per cent to US$61.05 a barrel.
Kenanga Investment Bank Bhd in a note said short-term consolidation could be the case for this week’s trading, given momentum indicators still displaying some weaknesses as seen in the flat-lining of MACD (moving average convergence divergence) and RSI (relative strength index).
“A decisive take-down of the 1,660 (R1) is vital for the local index to trend upwards towards 1,700. and reluctance to go beyond R1, would see the index retrace towards 1,615 and 1,600,” it said.
Among heavyweights’ counters, Maybank, Public Bank, CIMB Group and IHH Healthcare rose two sen each to RM9.27, RM22.50, RM5.25 and RM5.53 respectively.
While Petronas Chemicals was flat at RM8.95 with TNB fell two sen to RM12.26.
Of the actively-traded stocks, Lafarge was flat at RM3.72, Bumi Armada, Iskandar Waterfront and Ekovest were half-a-sen lower at 21.5 sen, 94 sen and 82 sen respectively.
For the losers, BAT eased 56 sen to RM34.84, F&N reduced 54 sen to RM34.26 and Vitrox fell 51 sen to RM6.68.
The FBM Emas Index fell 9.89 points to 11,563.76, the FBMT 100 Index was 10.39 points weaker at 11,384.55 and the FBM Emas Shariah Index eased 18.38 points to 11,707.00.
The FBM 70 reduced 26.21 points to 14,441.48 but the FBM Ace added 26.94 points to 4,631.07.
Sector-wise, the Financial Services Index rose 9.46 points to 16,924.18, the Plantation Index slid 6.01 points to 7,199.92 and the Industrial Products & Services Index was 0.18 point lower at 168.90. — Bernama
