KUALA LUMPUR, Feb 17 — Bursa Malaysia ended in the red today, amid a mixed performance on regional markets, despite policymakers pledging to put together fiscal and credit support to address the impact from Covid-19 outbreak.
At 5pm, the FTSE Bursa Malaysia KLCI (FBM KLCI) fell 7.34 points to its intraday low of 1,537.12 from Friday’s close of 1,544.46.
After opening 1.49 points weaker at 1,542.97 this morning, the local index surged to an intraday high of 1,545.92 before losing steam to trend lower in the afternoon session.
On the broader market, losers led gainers 444 to 413, with 384 counters unchanged, 726 untraded and 22 others suspended.
Turnover increased to 2.91 billion shares worth RM1.9 billion from 2.67 billion shares worth RM2.26 billion on Friday.
AxiCorp’s chief market strategist Stephen Innes said that throughout the Asean region, policymakers are putting together fiscal and credit support, while mulling over further rate cuts in response to adverse economic effects of the virus outbreak.
“On the data front, Malaysia’s fourth-quarter (2019) growth was a surprise, posting slower growth as exports deteriorate,” he said.
Innes said looking ahead, risks to growth and rates outlook in the first quarter of 2020 remained tilted to the downside amid the Covid-19 outbreak.
On February 27, the government would be announcing the economic stimulus package to address the impacts of the Covid-19 outbreak.
Finance Minister Lim Guan Eng said that Malaysia was among the earliest country to launch the stimulus package.
Regionally, the Singapore Straits Times lost 0.22 per cent to 3,213.00, Japan’s Nikkei 225 dropped 0.69 per cent to 23,523.24 but the Jakarta Composite Index was 0.01 per cent higher at 5,867.52 and the Shanghai Composite Index soared 2.28 per cent to 2,983.62.
On the local front, heavyweights Maybank was one sen higher at RM8.49, Petronas Chemicals rose five sen to RM6.55, Tenaga declined 18 sen to RM12.50 and Public Bank was flat at RM17.62.
Of the actives, DGB Asia fell 1.5 sen to 7.5 sen, Securemetric eased one sen to 14 sen, Powerwell rose 1.5 sen to 31 sen and Bumi Armada was flat at 39.5 sen.
On the index board, the FBM Emas Index declined 37.54 points to 11,028.54, the FBMT 100 Index fell 39.91 points to 10,813.09 and the FBM Emas Shariah Index gave up 75.48 points to 11,823.55.
The FBM 70 eased 4.18 points to 14,066.84 but the FBM Ace was up 18.05 points to 5,637.86.
Sector-wise, the Industrial Products and Services Index inched up 0.62 of-a-point to 147.33, the Financial Services Index advanced 40.09 points to 14,613.05 but the Plantation Index erased 34.79 points to 7,300.32.
Main Market volume slid to 1.74 billion shares valued at RM1.63 billion from 1.77 billion shares valued at RM2.02 billion on Friday.
Warrants turnover decreased to 325.81 million units worth RM52.9 million versus 357.40 million units worth RM56.48 million.
Volume on the ACE Market increased to 841.55 million shares valued at RM217.22 million compared with 537.41 million shares valued at RM177.27 million.
Consumer products and services accounted for 281.09 million shares traded on the Main Market, industrial products and services (269.44 million), construction (181.78 million), technology (139.56 million), SPAC (nil), financial services (38.87 million), property (144.04 million), plantations (42.11 million), REITs (11.01 million), closed/fund (nil), energy (470.75 million), healthcare (36.66 million), telecommunications and media (52.05 million), transportation and logistics (52.67 million), and utilities (21.43 million). — Bernama
