Bursa Malaysia ends lower on continuous profit-taking

KUALA LUMPUR, Sept 2 — Continuous profit-taking in the industrial products and services as well as plantation counters saw Bursa Malaysia end lower today amid mixed sentiments on the regional markets, dealers said.

At 5pm, the benchmark FTSE Bursa Malaysia KLCI (FBM KLCI) declined 4.70 points to end at 1,582.19 from Wednesday’s close of 1,586.89.

The index opened 1.42 points up at 1,588.31 and moved between 1,581.52 and 1,593.57 throughout the session.

Market breadth was negative with decliners surpassing gainers 574 to 434, while 464 counters were unchanged, 746 untraded and six others suspended.

Turnover was lower at 4.06 billion units worth RM2.77 billion compared with 4.91 billion units worth RM3.39 billion on Wednesday.

ActivTrades trader Anderson Alves said Asian equities were mixed on Thursday, mirroring Wall Street’s performance where trade was indecisive following the disappointing United States’ (US) ADP National Employment numbers ahead of the release of the US Nonfarm Payrolls report tomorrow.

“The data hurt the US dollar – its main index, the DXY, stumbled beneath 92.50,” he said in a research note today.

Meanwhile, he said China’s intervention in the commodities space continues to weigh on price action, where reports from the local media citing a speech by the vice-chairman of China Securities Regulatory Commission noted that China should increase its strength in fixing global commodity prices as its futures market opens up.

“In the previous session, traders saw a sell-off in the metal markets as China released a third batch of metals supply from state reserves. China released 150,000 tonnes of copper, aluminium and zinc from its strategic reserve, with the government pledging to continue to watch price trends,” he added.

Meanwhile, in a separate note, Rakuten Trade opined that the correction on the local market today as healthy following a mini rally since mid-August, which saw the benchmark index jump by almost 7.0 per cent.

“The benchmark index might consolidate further with bargain-hunting activities expected to emerge if the index dipped below the 1,575 level,” it said.

Press Metal and Sime Darby Plantation were the top two losers for the benchmark index, contributing to a total of 2.85 points, losing 10 sen and 11 sen to RM5.42 and RM4 respectively.

Among other heavyweights, Maybank slipped 3.0 sen to RM8.27, Public Bank fell 1.0 sen to RM4.07, Petronas Chemicals was flat at RM8.29, while Tenaga Nasional rose 4.0 sen to RM10.38 and IHH Healthcare improved 3.0 sen to RM6.36.

Among the actives, Ho Wah Genting added 3.0 sen to 33 sen, TFP Solutions advanced 1.0 sen to 23 sen, but Bintai Kinden shed 3.5 sen to 53 sen and TA Win went down 1.0 sen to 16 sen.

On the index board, the FBM Emas Index shed 27.92 points to 11,533.42, the FBMT 100 Index went down 27.06 points to 11,237.98 and the FBM Emas Shariah Index decreased 41.73 points to 12,657.36.

The FBM 70 fell 11.37 points to 15,006.08 while the FBM ACE gained 1.57 points to 7,217.59.

Sector-wise, the Plantation Index reduced 69.04 points to 6,688.55 while the Financial Services Index increased 3.33 points to 15,399.87 and the Industrial Products and Services Index slipped 1.04 point to 198.53.

Main Market volume decreased to 2.62 billion shares worth RM2.37 billion from Wednesday’s 3.51 billion shares worth RM3.06 billion.

Warrants turnover rose to 370.34 million units valued at RM49.07 million compared to 335.24 million units valued at RM47.37 million.

Volume on the ACE Market widened to 1.06 billion shares worth RM348.83 million from 1.05 billion shares worth RM278.91 million previously.

Consumer products and services accounted for 470.11 million shares traded on the Main Market, industrial products and services (1.14 billion), construction (73.44 million), technology (226.91 million), SPAC (nil), financial services (73.68 million), property (178.98 million), plantation (38.45 million), REITs (4.84 million), closed/fund (49,000), energy (241.96 million), healthcare (76.72 million), telecommunications and media (41.05 million), transportation and logistics (34.99 million) and utilities (17.41 million). — Bernama