KUALA LUMPUR, June 17 — Bursa Malaysia closed lower today as profit-taking emerged in consumer products and services as well as financial services counters, and in line with the weaker sentiment in regional markets, dealers said.
At 5pm, the benchmark FTSE Bursa Malaysia KLCI (FBM KLCI) declined 7.46 points to 1,570.86 from Wednesday’s close of 1,578.32.
The index opened 0.43 of-a-point higher at 1,578.75 today and moved between 1,568.67 and 1,578.75 throughout the day.
Market breadth was negative with losers thumping gainers 611 to 361, while 454 counters were unchanged, 739 untraded and 14 others suspended.
Turnover fell to 4.26 billion units worth RM2.74 billion from 4.69 billion units worth RM3.14 billion yesterday.
Nestle and Hong Leong Financial were among the top contributors to the benchmark index’s downturn after losing 20 sen and 18 sen each to RM134.40 and RM17.98 respectively.
An analyst said most Asian stock markets were down on Thursday, tracking the weaker overnight Wall Street after the US Federal Reserve indicated it might ease off economic stimulus earlier than previously thought.
ActivTrades trader Anderson Alves said Asian shares were on the back foot Thursday after a hawkish US Federal Open Market Committee (FOMC) decision which saw the Federal Reserve’s (Fed) dot plots lean tighter after projecting a 50 basis points hike for 2023.
“The hawkish implications of the dot plot saw global equity and debt markets selling off while the US dollar Index rose to its highest level in over a month. For the session ahead, price action will most likely be reflected in the context of yesterday’s heavy sell-off,” he said in a note today.
He said Fed chairman Jerome Powell was keen to emphasise that the dot plots did not reflect a consensus committee decision.
In the meantime, heavyweights Maybank was flat at RM8.17, Public Bank went down 2.0 sen to RM4.19, Petronas Chemicals slipped 3.0 sen to RM8.08, TNB declined 7.0 sen to RM9.95 but IHH Healthcare improved 1.0 sen to RM5.68.
Of the actives, MMAG was flat at 19 sen, KNM earned half-a-sen to 20.5 sen, Censof rose 3.5 sen to 50.5 sen and QES slipped 1.5 sen to 83.5 sen.
On the index board, the FBM Emas Index decreased 36.77 points to 11,485.88, the FBMT 100 Index declined 36.64 points to 11,173.73, and the FBM ACE went down 59.20 points to 7,576.09.
The FBM Emas Shariah Index dipped 54.24 points to 12,614.06, while the FBM 70 added 14.47 points to 14,982.96.
Sector-wise, the Financial Services Index shed 13.82 points to 15,294.36, the Industrial Products and Services Index inched down 0.87 of-a-point to 191.76, but the Plantation Index gained 9.58 points to 6,543.
Main Market volume slipped to 2.76 billion shares worth RM2.3 billion from 3.41 billion shares worth RM2.74 billion at Wednesday’s close.
Warrants turnover went down to 220.23 million units valued at RM26.1 million from 274.53 million units valued at RM31.73 million yesterday.
Volume on the ACE Market rose to 1.27 billion shares worth RM418.02 million versus 1.00 billion shares worth RM364.48 million previously.
Consumer products and services accounted for 428.76 million shares traded on the Main Market, industrial products and services (877.70 million), construction (104.56 million), technology (413.67 million), SPAC (nil), financial services (64.13 million), property (227.69 million), plantation (32.38 million), REITs (40.59 million), closed/fund (1,700), energy (343.24 million), healthcare (51.54 million), telecommunications and media (53.13 million), transportation and logistics (133.91 million) and utilities (29.55 million). — Bernama
