KUALA LUMPUR, March 22 — Bursa Malaysia ended in the negative territory today amid mixed performance in regional markets as concerns loom over the weakness in oil prices.

At 5pm, the benchmark FTSE Bursa Malaysia KLCI (FBM KLCI) ended at its intraday low of 1,616.73, down 9.46 points or 0.58 per cent, against Friday’s close of 1,626.19.

The market bellwether opened 2.28 points higher at 1,628.47, its intraday high, and started to retreat thereafter and hit a low of 1,616.73 at closing.

On the broader market, losers thumped gainers 744 to 392, while 422 counters were unchanged, 679 untraded and 37 others suspended.

Total volume fell to 7.57 billion shares worth RM3.99 billion from 9.04 billion shares worth RM5.80 billion on Friday.

Bank Islam Malaysia Bhd economist Adam Mohamed Rahim said market players were concerned over a drop in demand for fuel products in the wake of fresh lockdowns in Europe.

In addition to the weakness in oil prices, the slump in the Turkish lira after the country’s central bank head was replaced had also influenced the local market performance.

“Among the FBM KLCI index constituents, Sime Darby recorded the biggest loss of 5.2 per cent, followed by IHH Healthcare which declined 3.1 per cent Monday as Turkey’s leading private healthcare provider, Acibadem Holdings contributed around 25 per cent to IHH group’s revenue for the 2020 fiscal year,” he told Bernama.

Hence, a depreciation in the lira could have a significant impact on its revenue visibility moving forward, he added.

Counters that have a presence in Turkey include Sime Darby which erased 13 sen to RM2.39, IHH fell 17 sen to RM5.13 and Airport declined 10 sen to RM6.54.

At the time of writing, Brent crude oil declined 0.53 per cent to US$64.19 per barrel.

Meanwhile, among heavyweights, Maybank declined five sen to RM8.33, PBBank shed one sen to RM4.22, PChem lost two sen to RM8.20, but Tenaga gained 20 sen to RM10.76.

As for the active counters, Macpie lost 4.5 sen to 51 sen and its warrant fell 2.5 sen to at 9.5 sen, Widad dipped 13 sen at 43.5 sen, DNeX was down eight sen at 86.5 sen, while Ucrest perked up 1.5 sen to 24 sen.

On the index board, the FBM Emas Index weakened 62.27 points to 11,860.94, the FBMT 100 slid 62.36 points to 11,539.22, and the FBM Emas Shariah decreased 58.47 points to 13,171.42.

The FBM 70 reduced 64.32 points to 15,625.02 while the FBM ACE gained 17.80 points to 10,652.66.

Sector-wise, the Financial Services Index declined 83.22 points to 15,426.43, the Plantation Index fell 25.22 points to 7,150.40 and the Industrial Products and Services Index lost 0.05 of-a-point to 193.08.

Main Market volume fell to 4.11 billion shares worth RM2.95 billion versus 5.25 billion shares worth RM4.78 billion last Friday.

Warrants turnover dropped to 260.68 million units worth RM41.47 million from 305.82 million units worth RM53.32 million.

Volume on the ACE Market slipped to 3.20 billion shares valued at RM1 billion from 3.48 billion shares worth RM958.77 million previously.

Consumer products and services accounted for 668.40 million shares traded on the Main Market, industrial products and services (1.08 billion), construction (178.70 million), technology (736.50 million), SPAC (nil), financial services (71.70 million), property (381.98 million), plantations (23.33 million), REITs (9.14 million), closed/fund (34,100), energy (572.82 million), healthcare (79.18 million), telecommunications and media (49.43 million), transportation and logistics (222.36 million), and utilities (28.94 million). — Bernama