KUALA LUMPUR, April 23 — Bursa Malaysia turned mixed at the close today, prompted by mild profit taking in selected heavyweights, despite positive sentiment on the regional bourses as crude oil prices recovered, dealers said.
At 5pm, the FTSE Bursa Malaysia KLCI (FBM KLCI) eased 0.25 of-a-point to 1,381.64 from 1,381.89 at yesterday’s close.
The barometer index, which opened 6.85 points better at 1,388.74 points, hovered between 1,378.78 and 1,395.34 throughout the day.
The overall market breadth remained bearish with losers thumping gainers 827 to 198, while 253 counters were unchanged, 634 untraded and 20 others suspended.
Turnover edged down to 5.05 billion shares worth RM2.58 billion from 5.10 billion shares worth RM2.85 billion yesterday.
A dealer said contracts on the main US equity benchmarks turned lower as traders awaited the latest weekly American unemployment numbers due Thursday while Asian stock markets saw modest gains.
“Crude oil futures advanced in the wake of President Donald Trump’s order to the Navy to destroy any Iranian gun boats that harass American ships at sea,” he said.
He noted that investors would be watching the US jobless claims to be released later today for the latest sign of the Covid-19 impact, with the median expectation being for 4.5 million new applicants.
“While a gauge of global equities is up about 22 per cent from its March closing low, chaos in the oil market, poor European data and a mixed bag of corporate earnings suggest a more crippled global economy,” he added.
Among the heavyweights, Maybank slipped eight sen to RM7.42, TNB declined 20 sen to RM12.30 and Petronas Chemicals was flat at RM5.39, but Public Bank went up 14 sen to RM15.86 and IHH Healthcare rose eight sen to RM5.20.
Of the actives, Vortex Consolidated and Lambo were flat at eight sen and 1.5 sen, respectively, while Xidelang decreased one sen to seven sen and Media Prima added two sen to 15.5 sen.
On the index board, the FBM Emas Index was 8.64 points better at 9,617.89, the FBMT 100 Index increased 8.28 points to 9,498.41, the FBM Emas Shariah Index gained 37.34 points to 10,676.06, the FBM ACE advanced 43.52 points to 4,396.34, and the FBM 70 garnered 51.25 points to 11,448.50.
Sector-wise, the Financial Services Index shed 55.20 points to 12,308.90 and the Industrial Products and Services Index edged down 0.17 of-a-point to 116.84 but the Plantation Index climbed 20.65 points to 6,158.23.
Main Market volume decreased to 3.48 billion shares worth RM2.24 billion from 3.68 billion shares worth RM2.56 billion yesterday.
Warrants turnover narrowed to 329.74 million units worth RM79.97 million from yesterday’s 390.90 million units worth RM95.74 million.
Volume on the ACE Market grew to 1.25 billion shares worth RM261 million from 1.02 billion shares worth RM200.73 million previously.
Consumer products and services accounted for 698.51 million shares traded on the Main Market, industrial products and services (722.26 million), construction (214.64 million), technology (235.36 million), SPAC (nil), financial services (56.05 million), property (491.96 million), plantations (67.76 million), REITs (9.49 million), closed/fund (5,000), energy (514.15 million), healthcare (78.06 million), telecommunications and media (204.16 million), transportation and logistics (164.50 million), and utilities (19.18 million). — Bernama
