KUALA LUMPUR, Sept 1 — Bursa Malaysia ended easier today, dragged by selling in most heavyweights led by finance stocks, even though losses were capped by buying in smaller caps.

At 5pm, the benchmark FTSE Bursa Malaysia KLCI (FBM KLCI) erased 3.78 points to 1,521.43 from Friday’s close of 1,525.21.

The market was closed yesterday for the National Day.

At opening today, the barometer index opened 16.34 points higher at 1,541.55 and moved between 1,520.20 and 1,541.99 throughout the session.

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Market breadth was negative with losers beating gainers 612 to 542, while 391 counters were unchanged, 461 untraded and 23 others suspended.

Total volume shrank to 10.38 billion shares valued at RM5.59 billion from 11.15 billion shares valued at RM8.25 billion on Friday.

Rakuten Trade Sdn Bhd head of research Kenny Yee Shen Pin said the rotational play is on with retail investors still dominating trading, especially in the technology and healthcare-related counters.

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The Ace market index rallied today following record highs achieved by US-based Apple and Tesla which promoted positive sentiment among other US-based tech counters — Amazon, Facebook and Netflix.

Meanwhile, local tech companies like Malaysian Pacific Industries and Vitrox Corp gained RM1.30 and 28 sen each to RM17 and RM12.38, respectively.

However, the gains on the local equity market today were capped by losses in the finance stocks.

“Many are concern for more downgrade for the banking sector, but we think it is only temporary,” Yee told Bernama.

Maybank lost 20 sen to RM7.13, Public Bank shed 50 sen to RM15.92 and CIMB was 10 sen lower at RM3.20.

Of the heavyweights, plantation stock Top Glove jumped 22 sen to RM26.50, Tenaga improved 12 sen to RM10.98, and telecommunication stock Maxis was six sen higher at RM5.06.

Among top gainers, Hong Leong Financial and Hong Leong Bank, which announced a final dividend of 20 sen per share at end-June this year, rose 66 sen each to RM13 and RM14.66, respectively.

Separately, Hong Leong Bank said that the Employees Provident Fund had acquired more shares in the group.

Consumer products and services F&N gained 48 sen to RM31.10.

Among the actives, Fintec Global improved two sen to 18 sen, Nova added one sen to 10.5 sen, while XOX was flat at 26 sen.

Of the top losers, PetDag shed 30 sen to RM20.30, Supermax erased 28 sen to RM21.86 and Nestle was 20 sen weaker at RM139.00.

On the index board, the FBM Emas Index slipped 11.12 points to 11,074.46, the FBMT 100 Index was 17.31 points weaker at 10,869.44, but the FBM 70 added 13.93 points to 14,761.32.

The FBM Emas Shariah Index recovered 54.27 points to 13,220.92 and the FBM ACE climbed 225.16 points to 11,204.43.

Sector-wise, the Financial Services Index declined 130.789 points to 12,511.98, the Industrial Products and Services Index added 0.13 point to 136.63 and the Plantation Index gained 27.52 points to 7,084.80.

Main Market volume decreased to 5.29 billion shares valued at RM4.43 billion compared with 6.40 billion shares worth RM7.0 billion.

Warrants turnover narrowed to 438.38 million units worth RM130.38 million versus 549.36 million units valued at RM140.82 million.

Volume on the ACE Market widened to 4.65 billion shares worth RM1.02 billion compared with 4.19 billion shares worth RM1.10 billion previously.

Consumer products and services accounted for 1.38 billion shares traded on the Main Market, industrial products and services (1.389 billion), construction (470.89 million), technology (478.17 million), SPAC (nil), financial services (97.87 million), property (407.38 million), plantations (118.84 million), REITs (6.94 million), closed/fund (103.700 million), energy (664.72 million), healthcare (76.91 million), telecommunications and media (83 million), transportation and logistics (78.31 million), and utilities (34.05 million). — Bernama