KUALA LUMPUR, Feb 17 — Bursa Malaysia ended lower today, joining the global selldown on equities as the US interest rate outlook strengthens.
At 5pm, the benchmark FTSE Bursa Malaysia KLCI (FBM KLCI) shed 7.36 points, or 0.5 per cent, to end at 1,476.90 compared with Thursday's close of 1,484.26.
The key index opened 0.23 of a point lower at 1,484.03 and moved between 1,473.15 and 1,484.76 throughout the trading day.
On the broader market, decliners led gainers 627 to 282, while 414 counters were unchanged, 902 untraded, and 36 others suspended.
Turnover decreased to 3.27 billion units worth RM2.10 billion against Thursday's 4.56 billion units worth RM2.55 billion.
SPI Asset Management managing director Stephen Innes reckons that sticky inflation in both the consumer products and services indexes has investors running scared that the US Federal Reserve (Fed) will need to move interest rates higher and longer, spurring big demand for the greenback.
He said higher US interest rates and a stronger greenback typically blunt global risk-taking in stock markets, which is even more pronounced in Asia.
“Hence with hawkish Fed sentiment building, we have seen stocks trade lower today as well as regional peers. Unfortunately for local investors, this could continue as the markets fully price in another Fed rate hike in June,” he told Bernama.
Bursa Malaysia heavyweight counters Maybank and Public Bank went down 2.0 sen each to RM8.75 and RM4.15, respectively, while CIMB lost 3.0 sen to RM5.40. Tenaga Nasional shed 1.0 sen to RM9.89 and Petronas Chemicals rose 8.0 sen to RM8.28.
As for active stocks, MYEG dropped 2.5 sen to 66 sen and Top Glove fell 2.0 sen to 82 sen. Minda added 1.0 sen to 8.5 sen, SMRT gained 6.0 sen to 29.5 sen and Zen Tech rose half-a-sen to 4.0 sen.
On the index board, the FBM Emas Index slid 73.52 points to 10,742.16 and the FBMT 100 Index dropped 71.02 points to 10,410.24. The FBM Emas Shariah Index trimmed 74.80 points to 11,102.48, the FBM 70 Index fell 174.55 points to 13,525.43 and the FBM ACE Index eased 89.89 points to 5,659.66.
Sector-wise, the Financial Services Index dipped 83.77 points to 16,036.22, the Plantation Index reduced by 64.02 points to 6,837.68, and the Energy Index weakened by 17.36 points to 883.84. The Industrial Products and Services Index improved by 0.06 of-a-point to 190.52
The Main Market volume shrank to 2.14 billion shares worth RM1.75 billion compared with Thursday’s 2.96 billion shares worth RM1.99 billion.
Warrant turnover narrowed to 304.64 million units worth RM44.58 million from 556.92 million units worth RM83.58 million yesterday.
The ACE Market volume decreased to 821.09 million shares worth RM301.0 million from 1.04 billion shares worth RM469.63 million previously.
Consumer products and services counters accounted for 341.10 million shares traded on the Main Market, industrial products and services (614.42 million); construction (78.35 million); technology (398.62 million); SPAC (nil), financial services (73.71 million); property (141.23 million); plantation (47.72 million); REITs (6.54 million), closed/fund (58,700); energy (188.54 million); healthcare (127.61 million); telecommunications and media (32.59 million); transportation and logistics (79.19 million); and utilities (15.89 million). — Bernama
