KUALA LUMPUR, Aug 22 — Bursa Malaysia ended the day on a cautious note, pending further market direction amid global economic uncertainty.
The benchmark FTSE Bursa Malaysia (FBM KLCI) ended 0.49 per cent or 7.88 points higher at 1,602.47, after hitting an intra-day high of 1,605.53, breaking the immediate support level of 1,601.0 at the eleventh hour before sliding back.
The market barometer opened 1.67 points higher at 1,597.26.
Market breadth, however, skewed to the negative as losers outpaced gainers 401 to 283, with 430 counters unchanged, 746 untraded and 14 others suspended.
Turnover was slightly higher at 2.04 billion units worth RM1.75 billion compared with 1.99 billion units worth RM1.62 billion yesterday.
VM Markets Pte Ltd managing partner Stephen Innes said that the market was in a capricious mood, which has a decidedly risk-off note.
“Most of the investors are awaiting what US Federal Reserve (US Fed) chairman Jerome Powell would be saying at the Jackson’s Hole symposium tomorrow, which would give an indication on the rate cut decisions,” he told Bernama.
He added that investors are mostly certain that the US Fed would implement an interest rate cut, but it is still undecided on whether it would be 25 or 50 basis points.
Another analyst said that besides global reasoning, retail investors were absent from the local market as they implement a risk-off investment.
“With gold price on the rise, it is an indication that they are shifting to safe haven assets in bracing for a downturn,” she said.
On the local bourse, AMMB added 24 sen to RM4.14, Dialog and Digi gained two sen to RM3.49 and RM5.00 respectively, while IHH and Sime Darby were up one sen at RM5.67 and RM2.10 respectively.
As for actives, Vsolar dropped 1.5 sen to 13.5 sen, Jaks shed half-a-sen to 81.5 sen, Berjaya Land firmed 1.5 sen to 24 sen, MNC Wireless was half-a-sen firmer at 8 sen and NETX was flat at 1.5 sen.
The FBM Ace rose 41.47 points to 4,647.64, the FBM 70 slipped 19.79 points to 14,135.95, the FBM Emas Index recovered 36.40 points to 11,338.79, the FBM Emas Shariah Index appreciated 36.26 points to 11,869.95 and the FBMT 100 Index was 38.41 points higher at 11,174.49.
Sector-wise, the Financial Services Index strengthened 75.95 points to 15,588.11, the Plantation Index rose 21.88 points to 6,772.65, and the Industrial Products and Services Index was 0.75 point higher at 150.39.
Main Market volume increased to 1.31 billion units worth RM1.60 billion, compared with yesterday’s 1.27 billion units worth RM1.47 billion.
Warrants turnover decreased to 404.69 million units worth RM95.73 million compared with 418.17 million units worth RM92.27 yesterday.
Volume on the ACE Market, meanwhile, increased to 317.62 million units worth RM55.75 million from 303.94 million units valued at RM50.73 million.
Consumer products and services accounted for 286.64 million shares traded on the Main Market, industrial products and services (222.62 million), construction (106.14 million), technology (110.58 million), SPAC (nil), financial services (40.32 million), property (164.73 million), plantations (12.17 million), REITs (14.75 million), closed/fund (20,000), energy (186.29 million), healthcare (25.89 million), telecommunications and media (100.72 million), transportation and logistics (29.82 million), and utilities (17.00 million). — Bernama
