KUALA LUMPUR, March 9 — Bursa Malaysia has suspended the proprietary day trading (PDT) and intraday short selling (IDSS) of multiple oil and gas (O&G) counters for the rest of the day as the last done price of the approved securities dropped more than 15 per cent from the reference price.
The short-selling under PDT and IDSS will only be activated the following trading day (Tuesday, March 10) at 8:30am.
In several statements, the exchange lists affected counters which include Bumi Armada Bhd, Dialog Group Bhd, Coastal Contracts Bhd, Dayang Enterprise Holdings Bhd, Hibiscus Petroleum Bhd, Serba Dinamik Holdings Bhd, Muhibbah Engineering Bhd, Velesto Energy Bhd and Wah Seong Corp Bhd.
The global equity market, as well as Bursa Malaysia, came under selling pressure after the global benchmark, Brent crude oil dropped 20.63 per cent to US$35.93 per barrel.
US benchmark West Texas Intermediate, meanwhile, fell to a low of US$30 a barrel.
The plunge in global oil price followed the collapse of an oil supply agreement between Saudi-led oil cartel, the Organisation of the Petroleum Exporting Countries (Opec) and Russia.
The local equity mart benchmark — the FTSE Bursa Malaysia KLCI (FBM KLCI) ended the morning session 44.75 points or 3.01 per cent lower at 1,438.35 from Friday’s close of 1,483.10.
O&G components in FBM KLCI — the Petronas-linked stocks and Dialog dragged the key index lower.
Petronas Gas Bhd, Petronas Dagangan Bhd and Petronas Chemicals Group Bhd shed 44 sen, 84 sen and 94 sen each to RM15.70, RM21.24 and RM4.71 respectively, while Dialog Group Bhd eased 28 sen to RM3.01.
On the broader market, losers outpaced gainers by 1,112 to 80, with 95 counters unchanged, 711 untraded and 17 others suspended at 12.30pm. — Bernama
