Bursa Malaysia ends lower on profit-taking activities

KUALA LUMPUR: Bursa Malaysia ended lower today on profit-taking activities, in sync with regional peers taking the cue from the sharp fall on Wall Street on Wednesday and rising tension in the Middle East, a dealer said.

At 5 pm, the FTSE Bursa Malaysia KLCI (FBM KLCI) shed 3.88 points to 1,442.66 from Wednesday’s closing of 1,446.54.

The index opened 3.28 points lower at 1,443.26 and moved between 1,441.34 and 1,445.18 during the session.

On the broader market, decliners trumped gainers 509 to 337, while 457 counters were unchanged, 1,048 untraded and 10 suspended.

Turnover decreased to 3.07 billion units worth RM2.02 billion from 3.41 billion units worth RM2.71 billion on Wednesday.

Rakuten Trade Sdn Bhd equity research vice-president Thong Pak Leng said the FBM KLCI concluded the day with a slight dip as fresh catalysts were absent while investors remained cautious due to the volatile performances in global and regional equity markets.

He shared that the US Treasuries experienced a broad-based selloff, propelling the yield on 10-year notes to a new 16-year peak, suggesting the likelihood of prolonged elevated interest rates while the ongoing turmoil in the Middle East continues to negatively impact investor sentiment.

“On the domestic front, the benchmark index is stuck in consolidation mode as investors remained cautious for the aforementioned reasons.

“Consequently, we expect the FBM KLCI to trend sideways within the 1,440-1,450 range toward the weekend. From a technical perspective, immediate resistance and support levels remain unchanged at 1,460 and 1,430 respectively,” he told BK.

Regionally, Singapore’s Straits Times Index eased 1.16 per cent to 3,100.37, Japan’s Nikkei 225 slipped 1.91 per cent to 31,430.62, Hong Kong’s Hang Seng Index fell 2.46 per cent to 17,295.89, China’s SSE Composite lost 1.74 per cent to 3,005.39 and South Korea’s Kospi shed 1.90 per cent to 2,415.80.

Back home, Bursa heavyweights Public Bank shed five sen to RM4.12, Petronas Chemicals fell 17 sen to RM7.48 and Tenaga Nasional declined four sen to RM9.98, while Maybank and CIMB added one sen each to RM8.96 and RM5.58.

Of the actives, Icon lost two sen to 11 sen, MyEG eased 1.5 sen to 79 sen and Kanger inched down half-a-sen to 11.5 sen, but Widad edged up half-a-sen to 56.5 sen and Systech improved four sen to 53 sen.

Meanwhile, Bursa Malaysia announced today that short selling under intraday short selling (IDSS) for AirAsia X Bhd (AAX) (5238) stock has been suspended for the rest of the day as the last done price of the approved securities dropped more than 15 per cent from the reference price.

The short selling under IDSS will only be activated tomorrow at 8:30 am.

On the index board, the FBM Emas Index declined 32.31 points to 10,641.44, the FBMT 100 Index shed 32.28 points to 10,314.28, the FBM Emas Shariah Index slipped 38.51 points to 10,909.56, the FBM 70 Index fell 63.65 points to 14,015.50 while the FBM ACE Index rose 34.07 points to 5,105.90.

Sector-wise, the Industrial Products and Services Index inched down 1.66 points to 174.88 and the Financial Services Index eased 24.55 points to 16,141.29, the Energy Index gave up four points to 874.69 while the Plantation Index increased by 9.92 points to 6,938.30.

The Main Market volume decreased to 1.86 billion units worth RM1.71 billion from 2.34 billion units worth RM2.44 billion on Wednesday.

Warrants turnover expanded to 429.41 million units valued at RM49.53 million against 337.33 million units valued at RM42.81 million yesterday.

The ACE Market volume advanced to 762.42 million shares worth RM255.71 million from 716.30 million shares worth RM230.41 million previously.

Consumer products and services counters accounted for 282.98 million shares traded on the Main Market, industrial products and services (338.12 million); construction (145.17 million); technology (163.93 million); SPAC (nil); financial services (71.24 million); property (281.43 million); plantation (26.41 million); REITs (16.16 million), closed/fund (43,400); energy (321.80 million); healthcare (43.22 million); telecommunications and media (32.58 million); transportation and logistics (92.58 million); and utilities (41.46 million). – BK