PERSISTENT selling in most heavyweights dragged Bursa Malaysia to end lower, in line with the weaker sentiment on regional bourses due to bearish economic outlook, dealers said.
At 5 pm, the benchmark FTSE Bursa Malaysia KLCI (FBM KLCI) declined 14.22 points or 0.90% to 1,566.44, off its intraday low of 1,560.54, compared with Wednesday’s close of 1,580.62.
The index opened 16.54 points higher at 1,597.16 and moved between 1,560.54 and 1,597.52 throughout the day.
On the broader market, losers thumped gainers 873 to 366, while 380 counters were unchanged, 546 untraded and 62 others suspended.
Total volume was higher at 6.54 billion units worth RM6.37 bil from 5.63 bil units worth RM4.98 bil on Wednesday.
A dealer said the US markets were roiled by a spate of trading by small investors of video game vendor GameStop that hurt hedge funds that bet the stock would fall, of which brokers suspended some options trading in that stock and other stocks.
Another dealer said the move looked to have inspired some local investors to start “bursabet” which targeted to drive up the share prices of rubber-related companies that were affected by the pandemic recently.
The local version on social aggregator Reddit is based off the “wallstreetbets” subreddit group, a collective of presumably stock and option traders who are now calling for “unity” against “institutions” and “big money”.
Top Glove emerged among the top gainers and most actively traded stock today, rising 53 sen to RM6.74 with 161.62 million shares changing hands.
Other local rubber makers which were believed to received similar support were Supermax Corp which improved 24 sen to RM6.80, Kossan Rubber added 19 sen to RM4.45, and Comfort Gloves went up 5.0 sen to RM3.14.
Meanwhile, on the regional market, investors remained cautious over the COVID-19 infection spikes in Europe and Asia, renewed travel curbs and negotiations in Washington over President Joe Biden’s proposed US$1.9 trillion economic aid package.
Japan’s Nikkei 225 fell 1.89% to 27,663.39, Hong Kong’s Hang Seng dipped 0.94% to 28,283.71, China’s Shanghai Composite slid 0.63% to 3,483.07, while Singapore’s Straits Times Index declined 0.63% to 2,901.96.
The local market will be closed on Monday for the Federal Territory holiday. – Jan 29, 2021
