KUALA LUMPUR, June 23 — Bursa Malaysia bucked the trend in most regional markets to close broadly lower today with selling spotted mainly in heavyweights, led by rubber gloves and small-capitalisation stocks.
The benchmark FTSE Bursa Malaysia KLCI (FBM KLCI) fell 9.26 points to finish the day at 1,564.76 from yesterday’s close of 1,574.02.
The market bellwether, which opened 2.26 points easier at 1,571.76, fluctuated between 1,564.54 and 1,573.66 throughout the session.
On the broader market, losers hammered gainers 715 to 298, while 442 counters were unchanged, 750 untraded, and 17 others suspended.
Turnover declined to 5.22 billion units valued at RM2.78 billion today from 5.9 billion units worth RM3.08 billion yesterday.
Bank Islam Malaysia Bhd economist Adam Mohamed Rahim said the FBM KLCI index dropped 0.6 per cent today with rubber glove constituents such as Top Glove and Hartalega declining the most to the tune of 4.3 per cent and 2.4 per cent respectively during the day.
He said the drop in rubber glove counters coincided with the daily vaccination doses administered in Malaysia, which reached 250,529 on June 22, while the daily number of Covid-19 cases remained high, at 5,244 cases today.
“The daily decline in the local bourse was also despite the reassurance from the United States Federal Reserve that the benchmark rates will not rise that quickly.
“Perhaps fears from the pandemic in the country is still causing investors to invest in markets that are more stable in terms of Covid-19 infection rates,” he told Bernama.
Rubber glove makers — Top Glove eased two sen to RM4.45 while Hartalega lost 20 sen to RM8.00. The sell-off in these stocks dragged the composite index down by a combined 4.294 points.
Of the other heavyweights, Public Bank slipped one sen to RM4.19, Tenaga lost 11 sen to RM9.93, IHH shed three sen to RM5.72, while Maybank and CIMB were flat at RM8.20 and RM4.60 respectively.
Among the actives, Sanichi slid 1.5 sen to 6.5 sen, Saudee added one sen to 16 sen, Serba Dinamik trimmed three sen to 59.5 sen, Focus was flat at 4.5 sen, while ACE Market debutant, Pekat Group Bhd rose 49.5 sen to 81.5 sen.
On the index board, the FBM Emas Index was 64.95 points lower at 11,409.67, the FBMT 100 Index contracted 63.83 points to 11,104.17, the FBM ACE fell 122.9 points to 7,499.59, the FBM Emas Shariah Index erased 94.46 points to 12,502.21, while the FBM 70 declined 77.47 points to 14,788.32.
Sector-wise, the Financial Services Index gave up 27.01 points to 15,260.78, the Industrial Products and Services Index inched down 0.32 of-a-point to 189.13, while the Plantation Index shed 9.57 points to 6,528.61.
Main Market volume decreased to 3.08 billion shares worth RM2.18 billion from 3.55 billion shares worth RM2.52 billion yesterday.
Warrants turnover improved to 340.14 million units valued at RM33.41 million from yesterday’s 277.17 million units valued at RM29.69 million.
Volume on the ACE Market dwindled to 1.80 billion shares worth RM571.35 million from 2.08 billion shares valued at RM522.39 million yesterday.
Consumer products and services accounted for 805.18 million shares traded on the Main Market, industrial products and services (873.75 billion), construction (192.19 million), technology (309.44 million), SPAC (nil), financial services (50.75 million), property (204.2 million), plantation (27.27 million), REITs (4.09 million), closed/fund (13,200), energy (346.36 million), healthcare (64.21 million), telecommunications and media (96.6 million), transportation and logistics (69.36 million), and utilities (33.72 million). — Bernama
