KUALA LUMPUR: Across-the-board selling dragged Bursa Malaysia down by 3.3% at mid-morning amid persistent worries about Covid-19 and a plunge in the global crude oil price.
At 11am, the FTSE Bursa Malaysia KLCI (FBM KLCI) gave up 48.86 points to 1,434.24 with losses led by heavyweights PetChem, MISC and Maybank.
At the opening bell, the FBM KLCI opened 23.29 points weaker at 1,459.81 from 1,483.10 at Friday close.
On the broader market, losers trounced gainers 1,060 to 71, with 97 counters unchanged, 770 Untraded and 17 others suspended.
Turnover amounted to 2.97 billion shares worth RM1.28 bil.
Following the collapse of an oil supply deal between the Organisation of the Petroleum Exporting Countries (OPEC) and Russia-led alliance, world’s biggest producer Saudi Arabia has launched an aggressive oil price war targeting its rivals.
“In our view, this new price war impact is likely to be worse than the 2014-2017 period when Saudi Arabia waged against US shale oil producers, given that US crude oil production has now risen to 13.1 million barrels per day – 3.9 million barrels above 9.2 million barrels, which the US was producing in 2016 when Brent oil price crashed to US$26 per barrel and speculated China oil demand loss of up to 3 million barrels per day following the impact of the Covid-19,” said AmBank Research in a note today.
In addition, the market is also awaiting for the new Perikatan Nasional Cabinet line-up to be announced this evening.
Among heavyweights, PetChem lost RM1 to RM4.65, MISC was 60 sen lower at RM6.80 and Maybank fell 21 sen to RM8.29.
IOI dropped 28 sen to RM3.88 and Public Bank declined 44 sen to RM17.22.
Of the actives, Sapura Energy slipped half-a-sen to 11 sen, Velesto was 1.5 sen lower at 15 sen and Hibiscus Petroleum depreciated 25.5 sen to 45.5 sen.
On the index board, the FBM Emas Index slipped 418.51 points to 10,026.46, the FBM Emas Shariah Index gave up 493.69 points to 10,626.66 and the FBM 70 decreased 703.57 points to 12,014.01.
The FBMT 100 Index depreciated 391.36 points to 9,882.87 while the FBM Ace erased 391.41 points to 4,853.76.
Sector-wise, the Industrial Products and Services Index dropped 11.07 points to 124.16, the Financial Services Index dropped 400.60 points to 13,935.96 and the Plantation Index declined 305.08 points to 6,427.96. – March 9, 2020, Bernama
