KUALA LUMPUR, Aug 18 — Bursa Malaysia extended yesterday's losses to close marginally lower today on continued profit-taking in selected financial services as well as industrial products and services counters, in line with the weaker sentiment on regional bourses.
At 5pm, the FTSE Bursa Malaysia KLCI (FBM KLCI) slipped 1.89 points to 1,446.09 from 1,447.98 at Thursday’s close.
The barometer index opened 1.25 points better at 1,449.23, its intraday high, and hit a low of 1,442.26 during the mid-afternoon session.
On the broader market, losers overwhelmed gainers 552 to 380 while 435 counters were unchanged, 981 untraded and 29 others suspended.
Turnover declined to 3.19 billion units worth RM2.12 billion from 4.34 billion units worth RM2.56 billion on Thursday.
CIMB and Press Metal were the top two contributors to the local benchmark index’s losses, slipping 9.0 sen and 10.0 sen to RM5.55 and RM4.75 respectively, with a combined contribution of 2.93 points.
Rakuten Trade Sdn Bhd equity research vice-president Thong Pak Leng said the FBM KLCI ended marginally lower in tandem with the regional selldown.
"Regionally, key indices trended lower following the negative cue from Wall Street overnight as investors worry about the United States rate hike and fear a potential property catastrophe in China.
"On the domestic front, sentiment may remain cautious in view of increasing market risks and volatility in global markets,” he told Bernama today.
Among other heavyweights, Maybank rose 3.0 sen to RM9.00, Petronas Chemicals went up 1.0 sen to RM6.80, IHH Healthcare improved 5.0 sen to RM6.00, while Public Bank slipped 3.0 sen to RM4.13, and Tenaga Nasional was flat at RM9.95.
Among the actives, Hong Seng and Aimflex eased half-a-sen each to 6.0 sen and 21.5 sen, respectively, UEM Sunrise shed 1.0 sen to 62 sen, Parkson Holdings gained 7.5 sen to 29.5 sen, while KNM rose 2.0 sen to 9.5 sen.
On the index board, the FBM Emas Index was 18.01 points lower at 10,661.56, the FBMT 100 Index dipped 17.13 points to 10,347.53, the FBM Emas Shariah Index lost 3.91 points to 10,873.51, the FBM 70 Index erased 38.73 points to 14,099.52, and the FBM ACE Index was 49.40 points lower at 5,264.14.
Sector-wise, the Financial Services Index dropped 39.36 points to 16,254.10, the Industrial Products and Services Index eased 0.40 of-a-point to 167.27, while the Plantation Index advanced 74.94 points to 6,985.80 and the Energy Index edged up 0.39 of-a-point to 815.26.
The Main Market volume slid to 2.30 billion units valued at RM1.88 billion from 3.18 billion units valued at RM2.27 billion on Thursday.
Warrants turnover slipped to 359.69 million units worth RM48.86 million versus yesterday's 398.44 million units worth RM60.76 million.
The ACE Market volume tumbled to 524.22 million shares valued at RM182.18 million compared with 753.73 million shares valued at RM227.91 million previously.
Consumer products and services counters accounted for 475.66 million shares traded on the Main Market, industrial products and services (408.89 million); construction (187.20 million); technology (336.03 million); SPAC (nil); financial services (89.67 million); property (394.36 million); plantation (56.34 million); REITs (14.28 million), closed/fund (204,000); energy (186.66 million); healthcare (33.02 million); telecommunications and media (21.99 million); transportation and logistics (43.55 million); and utilities (53.51 million). — Bernama
