KUALA LUMPUR, March 6 — Bursa Malaysia ended in the red across the board today, in line with regional markets, as COVID-19 fears continue to cloud market sentiment.
At 5pm, the FTSE Bursa Malaysia KLCI (FBM KLCI) was 7.93 points weaker at 1,483.10 from Thursday’s close of 1,491.03.
After opening 4.19 points lower at 1,486.84 this morning, the local index moved between 1,479.74 and 1,486.84 throughout the day.
On the broader market, losers outpaced gainers 649 to 251, with 326 counters unchanged, 771 untraded and 17 others suspended.
Turnover reduced to 2.65 billion shares worth RM2.29 billion from 2.78 billion shares worth RM2.07 billion on Thursday.
A dealer said the local bourse stayed in the red since opening, with selling pressure seen across the board, and the barometer index weighed by sell-off heavyweights stocks led by financial stocks.
Asian stocks took the cue from an overnight sharp drop on Wall Street on fears over the fallout from the virus outbreak, he said.
On another note, he said Brent Crude oil prices, which fell to below US$50 a barrel amid uncertainty over Russia’s agreement to the Organisation of the Petroleum Exporting Countries’s proposal for a large production cut, is not supporting the local market.
Meanwhile, AxiCorp chief market strategist Stephen Innes said the economic impact of COVID-19 has always been about fear of the virus and “fear” is an economic problem which prompted investors to focus on the dominant narratives in the media cycle.
“Investors were starting to price in the worst-case scenarios in anticipating that the spread of COVID-19 growing throughout Europe and the US.
“Markets have also shifted from pricing temporary China weakness to a more protracted global event, which will see a good chunk of global Gross Domestic Product go up in smoke,” he said.
Regionally, Japan’s Nikkei index fell 2.72 per cent to 20,749.75, Singapore’s Straits Times lndex eased 1.74 per cent to 2,965.73, South Korea’s KOSPI Composite Index shed 2.16 per cent to 2,040.22, Shanghai’s Stock Exchange Index declined 1.21 per cent to 3,034.51, and Hong Kong’s Hang Seng Index reduced 2.32 per cent to 26,146.67.
Among the heavyweights, Maybank reduced three sen to RM8.50, Tenaga shed four sen to RM12.60, Public Bank fell 34 sen to RM17.66, Petronas Chemicals slid one sen to RM5.65, while IHH added 15 sen each to RM5.59.
Of the actives, Sapura Energy and MTouche slid one sen each to 16 sen and 12.5 sen, respectively, Vortex eased half-a-sen to seven sen, MClean shed 16 sen to 21 sen, while Careplus added 2.5 sen to 32 sen.
On the index board, the FBM Emas Index dipped 88.24 points to 10,444.97, the FBM Emas Shariah Index shed 69.65 points to 11,120.35 and the FBM 70 tumbled 203.21 points to 12,717.58.
The FBMT 100 Index was 80.06 points lower at 10,274.23 and the FBM Ace fell 48.27 points to 5,245.17.
Sector-wise, the Industrial Products and Services Index eased 1.63 points to 135.23, the Financial Services Index dropped 124.15 points to 14,336.56 and the Plantation Index reduced 33.73 points to 6,733.04.
Main Market volume slipped to 1.57 billion shares worth RM2.05 billion from 1.64 billion shares worth RM1.83 billion on Thursday.
Warrants turnover expanded to 462.66 million units valued at RM78.22 million compared with 440.25 million units worth RM73.71 million yesterday.
Volume on the ACE Market shrank to 616.86 million shares worth RM157.29 million versus 698.18 million shares worth RM166.23 million on Thursday.
Consumer products and services accounted for 264.33 million shares traded on the Main Market, industrial products and services (225.61 million), construction (100.66 million), technology (153.99 million), SPAC (nil), financial services (54.02 million), property (145.70 million), plantations (61.40 million), REITs (8.09 million), closed/fund (115,900), energy (336.0 million), healthcare (104.39 million), telecommunications and media (30.30 million), transportation and logistics (33.94 million), and utilities (48.64 million). — Bernama
