KL shares lower amid profit-taking in overbought market

KUALA LUMPUR, June 24 — Bursa Malaysia ended today’s trading in the red as investors booked profits in an overbought market after a four-day rally.

At close, the benchmark FTSE Bursa Malaysia KLCI (FBM KLCI) decreased 6.10 points or 0.36 per cent to end at 1,676.13 compared with Friday’s close of 1,682.23.

The index, which opened 2.95 points lower at 1,679.28, moved between 1,674.40 and 1,679.28 throughout the day’s session.

Market breadth was negative with losers outpacing gainers 518 to 294, while 356 counters were unchanged, 732 untraded and 22 others suspended.

Turnover fell to 1.81 billion units valued at RM1.68 billion from 2.23 billion units valued at RM3.05 billion recorded last Friday.

Jupiter Securities Sdn Bhd director Nazarry Rosli said today’s downtrend was merely due to profit taking as fundamental sentiment remained intact.

“It’s all healthy profit-taking activities,” he told Bernama, adding that the profit-taking activities are likely to persist for a few days.

In addition, he said investors are also positive over US-China trade talks progress ahead of the highly anticipated meeting between US President Donald Trump and his Chinese counterpart Xi Jinping at this week’s G20 Summit in Japan.

Finance Minister Lim Guan Eng today said Beijing had reassured Malaysia that it did not seek to prolong the trade war, adding that China is seeking an amicable resolution based on mutual respect and mutual prosperity to benefit all parties.

Among the heavyweights, Maybank rose two sen to RM8.96, CIMB increased half-a-sen to RM5.28, Public Bank dropped four sen to RM23.02, Tenaga was 10 sen lower at RM13.80 and PetChem declined six sen to RM8.50.

Sime Darby Plantation was down by nine sen to RM4.87 while both Axiata and Maxis erased six sen to end at RM4.99 and RM5.75 respectively.

As for the active stocks, Bumi Armada and Sapura Energy increased half-a-sen to 21 sen and 31 sen respectively, while Scomi went up two sent to eight sen.

The FBM Emas Index depreciated 56.57 points to 11,792.94, the FBMT 100 Index decreased 56.90 points to 11,647.11 and the FBM Emas Shariah Index weakened by 84.38 points to 12,126.04.

The FBM 70 fell 130.26 points to 14,568.84 and the FBM Ace went down 31.84 points to 4,365.50.

Sector-wise, the Financial Services Index rose 14.40 points to 16,760.96, the Industrial Products and Services Index edged down 0.68 point to 161.44 and the Plantation Index was 67.40 points easier at 6,952.14.

Main Market volume shed to 1.21 billion shares worth RM1.53 billion from 1.5 billion shares worth RM2.85 billion last Friday.

Warrants turnover fell to 360.02 million units valued at RM73.64 million from 450.77 million units valued at RM98.29 million.

Volume on the ACE Market slid to 219.40 million shares worth RM71.0 million from to 275.88 million shares worth RM96.62 million.

Consumer products and services accounted for 225.32 million shares traded on the Main Market, industrial products and services (134.14 million), construction (153.08 million), technology (70.90 million), SPAC (nil), financial services (47.24 million), property (143.16 million), plantation (14.34 million), REITs (16.39 million), closed/fund (nil), energy (321.25 million), healthcare (17.07 million), telecommunications and media (36.07 million), transportation and logistics (21.48 million), and utilities (13.48 million). — Bernama