BURSA Malaysia closed lower today on profit-taking in most index-linked counters led by stocks in the FBM Ace, healthcare and telecommunications, analysts said.
At 5pm, the FTSE Bursa Malaysia KLCI (FBM KLCI) fell 0.91% or 14.70 points to 1,591.62, compared with Wednesday’s close of 1,606.32.
The bellwether index opened 2.11 points firmer at 1,608.43 and moved between 1,590.34 and 1,608.92 throughout the trading session.
Market breadth was negative with losers surpassing gainers by 753 to 349, while 413 counters were unchanged, 777 untraded and 18 others suspended.
Turnover fell to 3.85 billion units worth RM3.47 bil against 4.29 billion units valued at RM3.11 bil on Wednesday.
Rakuten Trade Sdn Bhd vice-president of equity research, Thong Pak Leng said key regional indices were also in negative territory due to profit-taking as well.
“We expect the local stock market to remain positive despite some profit-taking activity given the continuous strong foreign inflow.
“Besides, the country is warming up to the easing of lockdowns and we reckon the positive market undertone will spill over onto the smaller cap stocks soon,” Thong told Bernama.
He said the benchmark index is expected to hover within the 1,600-1,610 range towards the weekend.
“Based on a technical point of view, we will see immediate resistance at 1,625 while immediate support is at 1,565,” he added.
Among the heavyweights, Maybank dropped 11 sen to RM8.20, Public Bank fell four sen to RM4.23, Petronas Chemicals increased one sen to RM8.81, IHH Healthcare was flat at RM6.60 and Tenaga was down one sen to RM9.75.
As for the actives, Kanger International was flat at five sen, Serba Dinamik was down one sen to 37 sen, while Supermax’s shares dropped by 20 sen to RM2.05 after the company’s product was banned from entering US ports of entry effective today.
On the index board, the FBM Emas Index lost 94.17 points to 11,723.35 and the FBMT 100 Index fell 95.49 points to 11,361.62.
The FBM 70 erased 92.57 points to 15,392.91, the FBM ACE gave up 86.18 points to 7,198.94, and the FBM Emas Shariah Index fell by 88.37 points to 12,785.61.
Sector-wise, the Financial Services Index depreciated 151.39 points to 15,786.37 and the Industrial Products and Services Index slid 1.39 points to 211.06, while the Plantation Index was 11.03 points better at 7,038.50. – Oct 21, 2021
