KUALA LUMPUR, Feb 26 — Bursa Malaysia ended the week in the negative territory after trading sideways throughout the day, as the downtrend of the regional markets cast a shadow on investors’ sentiments.
At 5pm, the benchmark FTSE Bursa Malaysia KLCI (FBM KLCI) eased 3.79 points, or 0.24 per cent to 1,577.75 from 1,581.54 at Thursday’s closing.
The key index opened 0.57 of-a-point lower at 1,580.97 and hovered between 1,563.56 and 1,586.23 throughout the day.
Market breadth was negative with losers thumping gainers 931 to 317, while 414 counters were unchanged, 537 untraded and 65 others suspended.
Total volume was lower at 9.81 billion units worth RM7.0 billion, compared with 10.44 billion units worth RM6.57 billion on Thursday.
Commenting on today’s performance, Rakuten Trade Sdn Bhd head of Equity Sales, Vincent Lau said the local market barometer staged a mild pullback today as investors remained jittery amidst the regional markets’ retreat.
“Despite the fall in the FBM KLCI, we did see some bargain hunting activities in the final hour, which lifted the key index to close higher at 1,577.75 from its intraday low of 1,563.56,” he told Bernama.
Lau added that a series of better-than-anticipated corporate results released over the past few days also helped to cap the losses in the key index today.
Regionally, Singapore’s Straits Times Index edged down 0.82 per cent to 2,949.04, Hong Kong’s Hang Seng Index contracted 3.64 per cent to 28,980.21 and Japan’s Nikkei was 3.99 per cent lower at 28,966.01.
Among the 30 FBM KLCI constituents, Petronas Chemicals retreated 35 sen to RM7.43, Digi eased five sen to RM3.70, Maybank and Top Glove were both six sen lower at RM8.03 and RM5.24, respectively, while Sime Darby Plantation declined seven sen to RM4.90.
Top losers included MPI which dipped RM1.00 to RM37.00, KESM which shrank 80 sen to RM15.10 and Ajinomoto which dropped 44 sen to RM15.36.
Of the actives, Dagang Nexchange inched up half-a-sen to 72 sen and its warrant improved 2.5 sen to 37.5 sen, GFM Services’ warrant added 3.5 sen to 7.5 sen, Signature International’s warrant perked three sen 10 sen, while XOX was flat at nine sen.
On the index board, the FBM Emas Index retreated 61.68 points to 11,614.17, the FBMT 100 Index erased 50.78 points to 11,302.0, and the FBM Emas Shariah Index was 102.50 points lower at 12,979.15.
The FBM 70 gave up 160.19 points to 15,461.17 and the FBM ACE shed 89.68 points to 10,873.52.
Sector-wise, the Industrial Products and Services Index inched down 2.23 points to 185.34 and the Plantation Index declined 35.90 points to 7,177.13.
The Financial Services Index rose 16.55 points to 15,002.34.
The Main Market volume narrowed to 6.84 billion shares worth RM6.29 billion from 7.14 billion shares worth RM5.72 billion on Thursday.
Warrants turnover was lower at 463.36 million units valued at RM93.09 million versus 481.14 million units valued at RM91.22 million yesterday.
Volume on the ACE Market slid to 2.49 billion shares worth RM616.87 million against 2.81 billion shares worth RM760.90 million previously.
Consumer products and services accounted for 1.04 billion shares traded on the Main Market, industrial products and services (1.64 billion), construction (451.64 million), technology (1.92 billion), SPAC (nil), financial services (251.14 million), property (283.85 million), plantations (53.81 million), REITs (16.19 million), closed/fund (43,000), energy (662.88 million), healthcare (117.20 million), telecommunications and media (97.70 million), transportation and logistics (132.25 million), and utilities (167.13 million). — Bernama
