BURSA Malaysia ended lower today, dragged down by heavy selling pressure across the board, amidst weak regional market sentiments, a dealer said.
At 5pm, the FTSE Bursa Malaysia KLCI (FBM KLCI) erased 17.13 points to its intraday low of 1,538.80 compared to yesterday’s close of 1,555.93.
The key indicator, which opened 1.01 points higher at 1,556.94, moved positively during the early morning session, hitting an intraday high of 1,559.71 before retreating at mid-afternoon.
On the broader market, losers trumped gainers 874 to 209, while 336 counters were unchanged, 823 untraded and 19 others suspended.
Total turnover widened to 3.61 billion units worth RM2.51 bil from 2.40 billion units worth RM1.91 bil on Wednesday.
Rakuten Trade Sdn Bhd vice-president of Equity Research, Thong Pak Leng said key regional indices were mostly in the negative territory following the continued selldown on Wall Street as investors remained jittery about the faster interest rate hikes.
On the domestic front, he said the FBM KLCI has breached the 1,540 support level, hence the local market may experience some headwinds amidst heightening regional volatility.
“However, we believe that this provides buying opportunities, given the cheap valuation of local equities against regional peers.
“As such, we expect the FBM KLCI to trade within the range of 1,535-1,550 towards the weekend, with immediate support at 1,530 and resistance at 1,575,” he told Bernama.
Among the heavyweights, Maybank eased 3 sen to RM9.07, Public Bank and Petronas Chemicals both fell 2 sen to RM4.63 and RM9.87, respectively, while IHH Healthcare gained 3 sen to RM6.45.
Of the actives, Serba Dinamik rose 2.5 sen to 8.5 sen, MNC slipped half-a-sen to 2 sen, Techna-X stayed flat at 11.5 sen, Dagang NeXchange lost 8 sen to 93 sen and CSH Alliance inched down 1.5 sen to 11 sen. – May 12, 2022
