KUALA LUMPUR, Nov 14 — Bursa Malaysia ended its Thursday trading softer in line with other Asian stocks following China and Japan’s weaker economic data, signalling that the ongoing United States (US)-China trade war had badly impacted some of the world’s biggest economies.
However, the losses were capped by buying in small caps, lower liner and plantation stocks.
The benchmark FTSE Bursa Malaysia KLCI (FBM KLCI) fell 3.67 points to 1,593.55 from 1,597.22 recorded at yesterday’s close.
The barometer index opened 1.82 points easier at 1,595.40 and hovered between 1,592.63 and 1,598.09.
In the broader market, losers led gainers 435 against 347, with 442 counters unchanged, 777 untraded and 19 others suspended.
Volume widened to 2.20 billion shares worth RM1.68 billion from 2.14 billion shares worth RM1.74 billion on Wednesday.
A dealer said China posted a sharply lower industrial production growth of 4.7 per cent year-on-year, below the market expectation of 5.4 per cent.
“This pushed Chinese authorities to ink an agreement with the US, but the US President Donald Trump offered no update on the progress of the negotiations in his policy speech on Tuesday,” he said.
Back home, he said investors are patiently waiting for Bank Negara’s third quarter (Q3) results, scheduled to be released tomorrow.
Standard Chartered Global Research has estimated Malaysia’s Q3 gross domestic product’s (GDP) growth to ease to 4.4 per cent from 6.2 per cent in the same quarter last year due to a high base effect.
Regionally, Hong Kong’s Hang Seng contracted 247.77 points or 0.93 per cent to 26,323.69, Japan’s Nikkei depreciated 178.32 points or 0.76 per cent to 23,141.55 and Singapore’s Straits Times Index was 8.09 points or 0.25 per cent weaker at 3,231.13.
Among the heavyweights, Maybank and Petronas Chemicals rose two sen each to RM8.67 and RM7.40 respectively, while Tenaga declined 18 sen to RM13.60 and Public Bank was flat at RM19.96.
Of the actives, Sapura Energy and XOX were flat at 29 sen and 4.5 sen, respectively, IFCA MSC added four sen to 53 sen and Perdana Petroleum slipped 2.5 sen to 43.5 sen.
Top losers included Nestle which shed 60 sen to RM145.00 and BAT which gave up 38 sen to RM17.18.
As for the top gainers, Dutch Lady Milk advanced 46 sen to RM58.00 and KLK increased 32 sen to RM22.52.
The FBM Emas Index erased 20.63 points to 11,311.72, the FBMT 100 Index depreciated 22.89 points to 11,123.38, the FBM Emas Shariah Index decreased 47.07 points to 11,833.81, FBM 70 was 17.83 points weaker at 14,116.86 but FBM Ace improved 41.88 points to 4,898.09.
Sector-wise, the Financial Services Index gained 7.53 points to 15,607.47, the Industrial Products & Services Index inched up 0.21 of-a-point to 153.02 and the Plantation Index widened 7.25 points to 6,929.48.
Main market volume stood at 1.28 billion shares worth RM1.46 billion, compared with 1.28 billion shares worth RM1.54 billion transacted yesterday.
Warrants turnover slipped to 312.83 million units valued at RM71.35 million versus 320.06 million units worth RM70.26 million on Wednesday.
Volume on the ACE Market grew to 607.53 million units worth RM140.96 million compared with 541.40 million units worth RM123.09 million previously.
Consumer products and services accounted for 176.37 million shares traded on the Main Market, industrial products and services (191.50 million), construction (112 million), technology (166.90 million), SPAC (nil), financial services (42.54 million), property (137.63 million), plantations (28.71 million), REITs (14.82 million), closed/fund (145,000), energy (313.54 million), healthcare (23.81 million), telecommunications and media (41.44 million), transportation and logistics (23.09 million), and utilities (10.86 million). — Bernama
