BURSA Malaysia extended yesterday’s losses to end lower for the third consecutive day on Friday due to persistent selling pressure in heavyweights as investors remained on edge amid the bleak external outlook and rising inflation, dealers said.
At 5pm, the benchmark FTSE Bursa Malaysia KLCI (FBM KLCI) closed at 1,537.83, erasing 12.07 points or 0.77% from Thursday’s close of 1,549.90.
The index, which opened 1.34 points firmer at 1,551.24, moved between 1,537.51 and 1,551.67 throughout the day.
Market breadth, however, was positive with gainers leading losers 494 to 366, while 393 counters were unchanged, 993 untraded, and 12 others suspended.
Total turnover was slightly lower at 2.23 billion units worth RM1.67 bil from 2.49 billion units worth RM1.90 bil on Thursday.
Rakuten Trade Sdn Bhd vice-president of equity research Thong Pak Leng said even though the FBM KLCI ended marginally lower with selling in banking and telecommunication stocks, buying interests emerged in the technology and energy sectors, lifting the component stocks broadly higher.
He said key regional bourses were broadly higher, riding on the positive cues from Wall Street overnight, while China and Hong Kong markets were closed for public holidays.
“On the local bourse, investors have switched attention to smaller stocks in technology as well as oil and gas stocks, while taking profit on blue chips in the banking and telecommunications sectors,” he told Bernama.
Meanwhile, Inter-Pacific Asset Management Sdn Bhd executive director and fund manager Datuk Dr Nazri Khan Adam Khan said global stocks made strong gains this week despite the bleak external outlook, rising inflation, higher interest rate, and a hawkish US Federal Reserve (Fed).
It was reported that Fed vice chair Lael Brainard said expectations for half-percentage-point increases in interest rates this month and July were reasonable and saw no case for pausing the central bank’s tightening campaign afterward.
Back home, heavyweights Maybank fell 6 sen to RM8.88, Public Bank declined 3 sen to RM4.58, IHH Healthcare lost 4 sen to RM6.50, CIMB slid 8 sen to RM5.10, while Petronas Chemicals was flat at RM9.99.
Of the actives, Serba Dinamik rose 1 sen to 11.5 sen and its warrants gained half-a-sen to 4.5 sen, Sapura Energy was down half-a-sen to 5.5 sen, Dataprep perked up 2 sen to 22 sen, while both MNC Wireless and Dagang NeXchange were flat at 1.5 sen and 99.5 sen, respectively.
On the index board, the FBM 70 advanced 57.14 points to 13,324.19, the FBM ACE climbed 35.55 points to 5,271.95, while the FBMT 100 Index lost 53.47 points to 10,702.73, the FBM Emas Index slipped 44.96 points to 11,012.94, and the FBM Emas Shariah Index retreated 32.10 points to 11,364.49.
Sector-wise, the Industrial Products and Services Index trimmed 0.58 of-a-point to 199.77 and the Financial Services Index declined 127.47 points to 16,618.79, while the Plantation Index put on 9.58 points to 7,911.63. – June 3, 2022
