Bursa Malaysia extends losses to close lower

KUALA LUMPUR: Bursa Malaysia extended Wednesday’s losses to close lower yesterday, in line with most regional peers, on continued profit-taking in selected heavyweights, consumer and technology counters, dealers said.

At the close, the key FTSE Bursa Malaysia KLCI (FBM KLCI) was 4.70 points weaker to end at 1,781.37 after moving between 1,786.14 and 1,780.79 throughout the day.

It opened 0.07 of-a-point higher at 1,786.14 against Wednesday’s close of 1,786.07.

Market breadth was negative with losers leading gainers by 492 to 397 with 342 counters unchanged, 601 untraded and 39 others suspended.

Volume shrank to 1.9 billion units worth RM1.81 billion from 2.70 billion units valued at RM1.85 billion on Wednesday.

Among the top losers, British American Tobacco lost 68 sen to RM43.62, Globetronics declined 37 sen to RM5.97 while United Plantation Bhd dipped 34 sen to RM9.46.

The weaker than expected data released by China, particularly the August industrial output data, had took some of the shine off the world’s second largest economy growth momentum in the first half of the year, fuelling stronger global demand, particularly for commodities, a dealer said.

However, he said investors remained cautious over the official US inflation data, to be released later on, for any indications as to whether the US Federal Reserve might stick to its current, measured pace of monetary tightening.

The markets also gained some support from the expectation that the US Consumer Price Index is to raise by 1.8 per cent in August, which would confirmed a modest rising trend over the past three months.

Regionally, Japan’s Nikkei 225 was down 0.23 per cent to 19,819.14, Hong Kong’s Hang Seng eased 0.28 per cent to 27,894.08, South Korea’s Kospi earned 0.91 per cent to 2,361.69, while the Singapore Straits Times index decreased 0.24 per cent to 3,222.72.

For heavyweights, Maybank added two sen to RM9.72, CIMB improved one sen to RM6.73, while TNB, Public Bank and Sime Darby were flat at RM14.58, RM20.58 and RM9.14, respectively.

Among active counters, MMAG Holdings increased one sen to 20.5 sen, MLABS and Land & General earned half-a-sen each to 10.5 sen and 22.5 sen, respectively, while Sino Hua-An was flat at 25.5 sen.

The FBM Emas Index was 21.16 points lower at 12,687.29, the FBMT 100 Index contracted 21.70 points to 12,348.57 and the FBM Ace reduced 22.47 points to 6,704.55.

The FBM Emas Shariah Index lost 25.53 points to 12,894.82, while the FBM 70 advanced 14.32 points to 15,179.73.

Sector-wise, the Plantation Index erased 61.76 points to 7,922.81, the Industrial Index shed 5.79 points to 3,233.71, but the Finance Index rose 8.16 points to 16,824.89.

The Main Market volume decreased to 1.19 billion shares worth RM1.68 billion from 1.77 billion shares worth RM1.67 billion on Wednesday.

Volume on the ACE Market narrowed to 164.47 million units valued at RM109.10 million from 783.61 million units worth RM158.31 million previously.

Warrants fell to 123.22 million shares worth RM16.45 million from 134.75 million shares worth RM17.11 million previously.

Consumer products accounted for 117.50 million shares traded on the Main Market, industrial products (371.38 million), construction (98.12 million), trade and services (315.88 million), technology (86.89 million), infrastructure (4.26 million), SPAC (2.37 million), finance (49.50 million), hotels (4.13 million), properties (109.06 million), plantations (28.56 million), mining (233,800), REITs (9.41 million), and closed/fund (19,100).