KUALA LUMPUR, July 10 — Bursa Malaysia closed in the red today, influenced by selling in the industrial products and services, as well as consumer products and services sectors.
At 5pm, the FTSE Bursa Malaysia KLCI (FBM KLCI) ended 3.9 points easier at 1,678.97 compared with Tuesday’s close of 1,682.87.
The index moved between 1,674.13 and 1,683.69 throughout the day.
Phillip Capital Management Asia-Pacific senior vice-president (Investment) Datuk Dr Nazri Khan Adam Khan said going forward, he expects the local market to ring in a positive tone next week due to the accommodative stance of the Federal Reserve (Fed) and positive performance of regional peers.
“We note that Wall Street has remained cautious the past two days as investors patiently await new signs leading to a potential rate cut by the Fed. Current sentiment in the market indicates the Fed will lower rates by 25 points at the end of July,” he told Bernama.
Nazri said Bank Negara Malaysia’s Monetary Policy Committee in looking to sustainable economic expansion, decided to maintain the overnight policy rate at 3.00 per cent.
“This is part of the strategy to ensure domestic economic growth, despite the global trade tension between the US and China. As of now, the local economy, managed to sustain growth in the first quarter of the year.
“The underlying inflation is seen to be stable in the absence of strong demand pressure, a positive indicator for economic growth,” he added.
At close, the broader market was negative, with decliners overtaking advancers 434 to 329, while 446 counters remained unchanged, 639 were untraded and 19 others were suspended.
Among heavyweights, Maybank, Hong Leong Bank and Nestle were flat at RM8.94, RM19.00 and RM148.50 respectively, while Tenaga lost 10 sen each to RM13.74.
Meanwhile, Public Bank rose six sen to RM23.12, as IHH Healthcare and Axiata improved one sen to RM5.81 and RM5.18 respectively.
Of the actives, main market debutant UWC was 58 sen higher at RM1.40, London Biscuits improved seven sen to 23 sen, while KNM, Focus Dynamics and Green Packet declined half-a-sen each to 31 sen, 27 sen and 38.5 sen respectively.
The FBM 70 shrank 57.86 points to 14,842.22, the FBMT 100 Index gave up 31.58 points to 11,713.56 and the FBM Ace declined 18.02 points to 4,607.94.
The FBM Emas Index shed 29.72 points to 11,879.94 and the FBM Emas Shariah Index was 37.74 points weaker at 12,259.43.
Sector-wise, the Industrial Products & Services Index slipped 0.83 of-a-point to 161.46, the Financial Services Index trimmed 11.99 points to 16,767.76 and the Plantation Index declined 9.12 points to 6,959.58.
Total transaction volume was lower at 2.23 billion units worth RM2.02 billion compared with 2.41 billion units worth RM1.72 billion on Tuesday.
Main Market volume narrowed to 1.59 billion shares worth RM1.86 billion from 1.64 billion shares worth RM1.56 billion.
Warrants turnover declined to 353.08 million units valued at RM73.47 million versus 399.46 million units valued at RM85.38 million.
Volume on the ACE Market eased to 286.87 million shares worth RM81.09 million compared to 363.35 million shares worth RM74.69 million on Tuesday.
Consumer products and services accounted for 428.99 million shares traded on the Main Market, industrial products and services (160.46 million), construction (156.57 million), technology (312.03 million), SPAC (nil), financial services (33.71 million), property (93.37 million), plantation (9.37 million), REITs (19.08 million), closed/fund (40,900), energy (235.05 million), healthcare (23.94 million), telecommunications and media (78.14 million), transportation and logistics (27.83 million) and utilities (16.88 million). — Bernama
