Bursa Malaysia erased gains made earlier today to end at its intraday low following heavy selling in the last 10 minutes of trading, an analyst said.
At 5 pm, the FTSE Bursa Malaysia KLCI (FBM KLCI) lost 0.50%, or 7.26 points, to finish at 1,444.22 from Wednesday’s close of 1,451.48.
The benchmark index, which opened 4.02 points better at 1,455.50, moved between 1,444.22 and 1,460.30 throughout the day.
Overall market breadth was negative with losers outpacing gainers 520 to 327, while 396 counters were unchanged, 1,039 untraded, and 65 others suspended.
Total turnover eased to 2.26 billion units worth RM1.97 bil from 2.37 billion units valued at RM1.77 bil on Wednesday.
Rakuten Trade Sdn Bhd vice-president of equity research Thong Pak Leng said regionally, key indices also finished broadly lower following negative cues from Wall Street overnight.
The Nikkei 225 in Tokyo declined after Japan’s May industrial production slumped 7.2% compared with the previous month.
Meanwhile, he said Chinese markets closed higher as China reported stronger factory activity in June.
Data from the National Bureau of Statistics showed that the manufacturing Purchasing Managers’ Index (PMI) rose to 50.2 in June from 49.6 in May, the first expansion since February.
According to Thong, this positive news would likely benefit Malaysia given that China is Malaysia’s largest trading partner.
“Back home, we believe the direction of Malaysian equities is still very much dependent on regional and global volatilities although bargain hunting may prevail due to attractive valuations.
“As such, we expect the FBM KLCI to trend sideways with an upside bias within the region of 1,440-1,460 towards the weekend with immediate support at 1,430 while support at 1,460,” he told Bernama.
Thong further said as the market entered the second half of the year, there could be optimism for the equity market as foreign funds would return to the region.
“Due to the economic problems and inflation challenges in the United States and European Union, investors are likely to go into regions which are still experiencing economic growth, and Asia-Pacific is one of the prime destinations,” he said.
He also said the online brokerage’s year-end FBM KLCI target remained unchanged at 1,670 based on 13.5 times calendar year 2022 earnings.
Meanwhile, among the heavyweights, Public Bank fell 5 sen to RM4.37, Maybank lost 6 sen to RM8.59, Top Glove dipped 8 sen to RM1.04, Tenaga eased 10 sen to RM7.98, Petronas Chemicals decreased 7 sen to RM9, and IHH was down 5 sen to RM6.45.
Top Glove led the most active stock list on Bursa Malaysia during the session, followed by Cypark which dropped 3.5 sen to 34.5 sen, Reach Energy and Widad which were flat at 5.5 sen and 36.5 sen, respectively, and MQ Technology which shed half-a-sen to 25 sen.
Among the top losers, Nestle fell 70 sen to RM132.60, KLK dropped 50 sen to RM21.94, and Petronas Dagangan slid 30 sen to RM21.12.
On the index board, the FBM ACE contracted 88.71 points to 4,751.38, the FBM Emas Index dropped 42.41 points to 10,307.26, the FBM Emas Shariah Index fell 35.28 points to 10,503.97, the FBM 70 was 9.86 points easier at 12,493.21, and the FBMT 100 Index trimmed 40.39 points to 10,047.49.
Sector-wise, the Financial Services Index retreated 78.69 points to 15,984.18 and the Plantation Index was 69.81 points weaker at 6,900.83, but the Industrial Products and Services Index was 0.42 of-a-point higher at 181.70. – June 30, 2022
