KUALA LUMPUR, Jan 22 — Bursa Malaysia remained lower at mid-afternoon today due to losses in most heavyweights amid weak market sentiment.
At 3pm, the FTSE Bursa Malaysia KLCI (FBM KLCI) declined 0.71 of-a-point to 1,586.62 from yesterday's close of 1,587.33, after opening 2.69 points weaker at 1,584.64 this morning.
Market breadth was negative with losers outpacing gainers 482 to 338 while 338 remained unchanged, 828 untraded and 38 counters suspended.
Turnover amounted to 2.14 billion shares worth RM1.42 billion.
A dealer said market sentiment was down on news that the Chinese coronavirus had spread to the United States, raising fears of a pandemic that might affect global economic growth.
“The weakness in the ringgit also did not help, whilst the downbeat commodity prices (both crude palm oil and crude oil) also contributed to the weakness on the local bourse,” he added.
Among the heavyweights, Maybank and Petronas Chemicals lost one sen each to RM8.59 and RM6.98, respectively, Tenaga eased two sen to RM12.86 and Public Bank was flat at RM19.48.
The most active counter was ACE Market debutant, Powerwell Holdings Bhd, which rose 3.5 sen to 28.5 sen, with 235.61 million shares traded.
Other actively traded stocks were Vortex, which was unchanged at nine sen, while Supermax rose nine sen to RM1.54.
On the scoreboard, the FBM Emas Index went down 2.22 points to 11,317.45 and the FBM Emas Shariah Index increased 16.97 points to 12,010.14.
The FBMT 100 Index fell 2.08 points to 11,104.38, the FBM 70 added 9.19 points to 14,213.65 and the FBM Ace was 15.26 points higher at 5,650.35.
Sector-wise, the Industrial Products and Services Index inched down 0.41 of-a-point to 152.87, the Financial Services Index fell 8.56 points to 15,316.82 and the Plantation Index was 32.11 points weaker at 7,487.65. — Bernama
