KUALA LUMPUR, June 4 ― Bursa Malaysia extended earlier losses to end the half-day trading today on a sour note, dampened by weak interest mostly in the telecommunication index-linked counters.
Snapping its six straight winning sessions, the benchmark FTSE Bursa Malaysia KLCI (FBM KLCI) settled 11.22 points lower at 1,644.09, from 1,655.31 at 5pm yesterday.
The index, which opened 1.29 points weaker at 1,654.02 earlier, moved between 1,644.09 and 1,655.89 throughout the morning session.
Telco stocks, Aixata lost 12 sen to RM4.56, while Maxis and Digi trimmed 11 sen each to RM5.44 and RM4.77. The three counters dragged the composite index down by 4.913 points.
Market breadth was almost even with 331 gainers and 342 losers, while 353 counters were unchanged, 856 untraded and 27 others suspended.
As at 12.30pm, turnover stood at 1.00 billion units worth RM1.01 billion against 1.60 billion units worth RM1.55 billion recorded at 5 pm yesterday.
A dealer said Bursa Malaysia took cue from the negative overnight performance on Nasdaq, which saw technology stocks such as Alphabet, Facebook and Amazon.com tumbled on fears the companies were the targets of US government antitrust regulators.
“Hence, this influenced sentiment in our telcos,” he told Bernama, citing concerns over global trade war continuing to weigh on demand.
He also said weak local participation, as most of investors had left for the Hari Raya Aidilfitri holidays, also contributed to the day’s weak interest.
Among other heavyweights, Maybank shed two sen to RM8.97, Public Bank contracted 12 sen to RM23.42, Tenaga lost four sen to RM12.82, and Petronas Chemicals erased six sen to RM8.28.
However, CIMB rose three sen to RM5.32.
Of the actively-traded stocks, Lambo inched up half-a-sen to six sen, Sapura Energy and Ekovest added one sen each to 30 sen and 77.5 sen, while Bumi Armada was flat at 20 sen.
Meanwhile, Bursa Malaysia has notified that the entire issued capital of Selangor Properties Bhd would be removed from the official list with effect from 9 am today.
On the scoreboard, the FBM Emas Index fell 52.84 points to 11,538.59, the FBMT 100 decreased 55.39 points to 11,402.7, and the FBM Emas Shariah Index gave up 64.93 points for 11,725.3.
However, the FBM 70 gained 22.16 points to 14,174.78, and the FBM Ace Index perked up 11.51 points to 4,231.99.
Sector-wise, the Financial Services Index lost 12.93 points to 16,816.56, the Industrial Products and Services Index slipped 0.7 of-a-point to 158.93 and the Plantation Index erased 78.01 points to 6,855.15.
Main Market volume declined to 619.94 million shares worth RM935.79 million during the half-day trading, compared with 937.37 million shares valued at RM1.42 billion registered on Monday.
Warrants turnover shrank to 246.65 million units worth RM55.58 million from 397.61 million units valued at RM99.19 million.
Volume on the ACE Market dwindled to 135.7 million shares worth RM14.56 million from 259.0 million shares valued at RM30.67 million yesterday.
Consumer products and services accounted for 116.15 million shares traded on the Main Market, industrial products and services (117.07 million), construction (58.36 million), technology (22.75 million), SPAC (nil), financial services (30.15 million), property (60.19 million), plantation (12.05 million), REITs (4.86 million), closed/fund (nil), energy (152.9 million), healthcare (12.63 million), telecommunications and media (17.06 million), transportation and logistics (9.65 million) and utilities (6.13 million).
Bursa Malaysia will be closed for two days, starting tomorrow, in conjunction with the Hari Raya Aidilfitri celebrations.
Market operations will resume on Friday, June 7. ― Bernama
