KUALA LUMPUR, May 12 — Bursa Malaysia ended lower today, dragged down by heavy selling pressure across the board, amidst weak regional market sentiments, a dealer said.
At 5pm, the FTSE Bursa Malaysia KLCI (FBM KLCI) erased 17.13 points to its intraday low of 1,538.80 compared to yesterday’s close of 1,555.93.
The key indicator, which opened 1.01 points higher at 1,556.94, moved positively during the early morning session, hitting an intraday high of 1,559.71 before retreating at mid-afternoon.
On the broader market, losers trumped gainers 874 to 209, while 336 counters were unchanged, 823 untraded and 19 others suspended.
Total turnover widened to 3.61 billion units worth RM2.51 billion from 2.40 billion units worth RM1.91 billion yesterday.
Rakuten Trade Sdn Bhd vice-president of Equity Research, Thong Pak Leng said key regional indices were mostly in the negative territory following the continued selldown on Wall Street as investors remained jittery about the faster interest rate hikes.
On the domestic front, he said the FBM KLCI has breached the 1,540 support level, hence the local market may experience some headwinds amidst heightening regional volatility.
“However, we believe that this provides buying opportunities, given the cheap valuation of local equities against regional peers.
“As such, we expect the FBM KLCI to trade within the range of 1,535-1,550 towards the weekend, with immediate support at 1,530 and resistance at 1,575,” he told Bernama.
Among the heavyweights, Maybank eased three sen to RM9.07, Public Bank and Petronas Chemicals both fell two sen to RM4.63 and RM9.87, respectively, while IHH Healthcare gained three sen to RM6.45.
Of the actives, Serba Dinamik rose 2.5 sen to 8.5 sen, MNC slipped half-a-sen to two sen, Techna-X stayed flat at 11.5 sen, Dagang NeXchange lost eight sen to 93 sen and CSH Alliance inched down 1.5 sen to 11 sen.
Across the index board, FBM Emas Index shrank 159.30 points to 10,953.04, FBMT 100 Index reduced 145.45 points to 10,640.48, FBM Emas Shariah Index gave up 213.34 points to 11,301.78, FBM ACE slipped 129.36 points to 5,229.78 and FBM 70 shed 287.73 points to 12,966.84.
Sector-wise, the Financial Services Index contracted 64.64 points to 16,701.48, the Industrial Products and Services Index was down by 3.91 points to 193.47 and the Plantation Index dipped 212.13 points to 8,021.89.
The Main Market volume widened to 2.45 billion shares worth RM2.29 billion from 1.74 billion shares worth RM1.74 billion yesterday.
Warrants turnover improved to 345.22 million units valued at RM68.47 million from 251.33 million units valued at RM46.66 million yesterday.
The ACE Market volume expanded to 820.02 million units worth RM149.96 million versus 406.83 million shares worth RM118.36 million previously.
Consumer products and services counters accounted for 297.75 million shares traded on the Main Market, industrial products and services (515.42 million), construction (142.50 million), technology (245.92 million), SPAC (nil), financial services (79.83 million), property (183.34 million), plantation (84.20 million), REITs (7.01 million), closed/fund (nil), energy (770.42 million), healthcare (49.45 million), telecommunications and media (25.73 million), transportation and logistics (25.60 million), and utilities (18.33 million). — Bernama
