KUALA LUMPUR, Jan 4 — Bursa Malaysia remained in a bearish mode at the close today due to the lack of market catalysts, a dealer said.
At 5pm, the benchmark FTSE Bursa Malaysia KLCI (FBM KLCI) fell 7.15 points to end at 1,541.9 compared with yesterday’s closing of 1,549.05.
The index, which opened 1.87 points firmer at 1,550.92, moved between 1,536.52 and 1,551.33 throughout the day.
Rakuten Trade Sdn Bhd vice-president of Equity Research, Thong Pak Leng said some investors are currently looking for value buys, especially among small-cap counters.
“Nonetheless, we prefer to stay cautious given the heightened volatility in the market, although bargain hunting may emerge as well,” he told Bernama.
Market breadth was positive with gainers leading losers 524 to 383, while 415 counters were unchanged, 951 untraded and 15 others suspended.
Turnover rose to 3.51 billion units worth RM1.93 billion from 2.74 billion units worth RM1.48 billion chalked up yesterday.
Thong added that the benchmark index is expected to trade rangebound, hovering within the 1,540-1,550 range for the remainder of the week.
“Form the technical point of view, immediate support remains unchanged at 1,530, while resistance is at 1,570,” he added.
Among the heavyweights, Maybank added three sen to RM8.36 and PChem gained two sen to RM8.78, while Public Bank erased two sen to RM4.13 and IHH was down by five sen to RM6.82.
Of the actives, XOX was flat at three sen, ATaims gained 6.5 sen at 67 sen, SMTrack advanced two sen to 25.5 sen, while Bintai lost 2.5 sen to 20.5 sen.
On the index board, the FBM Emas Index fell 21.15 points to 11,201.23, the FBM Emas Shariah Index erased 41.32 points to 12,055.02 and the FBMT 100 Index decreased 24.97 points to 10,892.84.
Conversely, the FBM ACE jumped 27.04 points to 6,572.31 and the FBM 70 gained 77.72 points to 14,303.57.
Sector-wise, the Financial Services Index rose 19.80 points to 15,633.87 and the Plantation Index fell 31.46 points to 6,628.92, while the Industrial Products and Services Index inched up 0.56 of-a-point to 201.95.
The Main Market volume increased to 1.96 billion shares worth RM1.63 billion from 1.39 billion shares worth RM1.21 billion yesterday.
Warrants turnover increased to 162.83 million units worth RM19.39 million from 171.6 million units worth RM21.61 million previously.
The ACE Market volume increased to 1.39 billion shares valued at RM271.54 million from yesterday’s 1.17 billion shares valued at RM250.63 million.
Consumer products and services counters accounted for 354.87 million shares traded on the Main Market, industrial products and services (820.24 million), construction (57.28 million), technology (299.68 million), SPAC (nil), financial services (46.35 million), property (89.45 million), plantation (9.9 million), REITs (3.6 million), closed/fund (11,100), energy (137.7 million), healthcare (53.11 million), telecommunications and media (22.6 million), transportation and logistics (48.64 million), and utilities (14.76 million). — Bernama
