KUALA LUMPUR, July 4 — Bursa Malaysia ended the first trading day of the week broadly lower as investors stayed on the sidelines ahead of Bank Negara Malaysia’s (BNM) decision on interest rates later this week.
At 5pm, the FTSE Bursa Malaysia KLCI (FBM KLCI) slipped 12.22 points or 0.84 per cent to finish at its intraday low of 1,437.52 from Friday’s close of 1,449.74, after opening at an intraday high of 1,449.50.
The overall market breadth was negative with losers outnumbering gainers 468 to 297, while 388 counters were unchanged, 1,076 untraded, and nine others suspended.
Total turnover increased to 1.74 billion units valued at RM1.08 billion from Friday’s 1.49 billion units valued at RM1.15 billion.
Rakuten Trade Sdn Bhd vice-president of equity research Thong Pak Leng said the local bourse ended broadly lower today after a lacklustre trading session as investors seemed reluctant to make more significant moves due to the absence of buying catalysts.
“We remain cautious and believe the near-term direction of the local market is still very much dependent on the regional volatility. Nonetheless, we believe accumulation of stocks to persist on dips.
“As such, we anticipate the FBM KLCI to hover between a wider range of between 1,430 and 1,460 for the the week, with immediate support at 1,430 and resistance at 1,465,” he told Bernama.
Meanwhile, Maybank Investment Bank Bhd today said it is estimating a 100 basis points (bps) increase in the Overnight Policy Rate for the period between the second half (H2) of 2022 and the first half of next year (H1 2023).
The bank expects BNM to announce a 25 bps hike within this week’s monetary policy meeting and another 25 bps by the fourth quarter 2022, and a further 50 bps in H1 2023.
On the local bourse, heavyweights Petronas Chemicals added four sen to RM9.12, CIMB was flat at RM5.03, Maybank shed two sen to RM8.60, Public Bank eased three sen to RM4.39, and IHH Healthcare declined five sen to RM6.43.
Of the actives, Jade Marvel and Widad were flat at 91 sen and 36.5 sen, respectively, Reach Energy inched down half-a-sen to five sen, Top Glove slid 3.5 sen to 97.5 sen, and Dagang NeXchange was one sen lower at 78 sen.
On the index board, the FBM Emas Index trimmed 89.84 points to 10,226.04, FBM Emas Shariah Index dipped 127.21 points to 10,353.77, FBM 70 lost 109.51 points to 12,294.03, FBM ACE decreased 67.07 points to 4,717.45, and the FBMT 100 Index shaved off 85.75 points to 9,973.96.
Sector-wise, the Financial Services Index went down 17.0 points to 16,039.81, the Industrial Products and Services Index was 1.49 points weaker at 180.20, and the Plantation Index slid 34.13 points to 6,890.59. — Bernama
