KUALA LUMPUR, May 11 — The nationwide expansion of the movement control order weighed on sentiment on Bursa Malaysia, dragging its key index to end the morning session lower.
At midday, the benchmark FTSE Bursa Malaysia KLCI (FBM KLCI) erased 9.11 points to 1,574.81 from Monday’s close of 1,583.92.
The key index, which opened 4.61 points weaker at 1,579.31 this morning, moved between 1,573.01 and 1,581.26 throughout the session.
The overall market breadth was weak with losers thumping gainers 928 to 157, while 348 counters were unchanged, 735 untraded and 12 others suspended.
Total volume stood at 3.36 billion shares worth RM1.53 billion.
Prime Minister Tan Sri Muhyiddin Yassin announced yesterday that the whole country would be placed under the MCO from May 12 until June 7 to curb the recent spike in Covid-19 infections.
Meanwhile, Bank Negara Malaysia announced today that the country’s economy recorded a 0.5 per cent contraction in the first quarter of 2021 compared with a decrease of 3.4 per cent in the preceding quarter, signalling a recovery with improvement seen in all economic sectors.
Governor Datuk Nor Shamsiah Mohd Yunus said Malaysia remained on track to achieve its forecast Gross Domestic Product growth of between 6.0 per cent and 7.5 per cent in 2021, riding on the recovery in domestic demand.
Among the heavyweights, Maybank trimmed five sen to RM8.19, Public Bank and Tenaga slipped one sen each to RM4.09 and RM9.89 respectively, PetChem lost 12 sen to RM8.13, and IHH Healthcare declined seven sen to RM5.59.
Of the actives, Pegasus, Focus Dynamics and AT Systematization were flat at two sen, eight sen and nine sen respectively, while Fintec inched down half-a-sen to four sen.
On the index board, the FBM Emas Index fell 82.51 points to 11,533.83, the FBMT 100 Index was 72.44 points weaker at 11,205.6, the FBM Emas Shariah Index declined 87.92 points to 12,934.19, the FBM ACE decreased 126.8 points to 8,011.04 and the FBM 70 erased 126.96 points to 15,040.31.
Sector-wise, the Financial Services Index gave up 80.43 points to 14,709.11, the Industrial Products and Services Index slipped 2.54 points to 196.62, and the Plantation Index reduced 76.93 points to 7,073.2. — Bernama
