BURSA Malaysia reversed yesterday’s gains to end lower across the board today on profit-taking after a sharp rise Tuesday as investors remained on a cautious mode, a dealer said.
At 5pm, the FTSE Bursa Malaysia KLCI (FBM KLCI) declined 22.23 points, or 1.50% to 1,459.05 from Tuesday’s close of 1,481.28.
The barometer index, which opened 0.40 of-a-point lower at 1,480.88, moved between 1,453.19 and 1,480.96 throughout the day.
On the broader market, losers thumped gainers 732 to 231, while 382 counters were unchanged, 934 untraded, and nine others suspended.
Total turnover narrowed to 2.43 billion units worth RM1.82 bil from 2.72 billion units worth RM2.11 bil on Tuesday.
Rakuten Trade Sdn Bhd vice-president of equity research Thong Pak Leng expects investor sentiment to remain soft due to external factors such as market risks and volatility in global markets amid multi-year high inflation in the United States.
“A potential aggressive interest hike by the US Federal Reserve ahead of the Federal Open Market Committee (FOMC) meeting today may put the world’s largest economy into recession,” he told Bernama.
Thong further noted that, for the local bourse, the FBM KLCI remained in an oversold position after heavy sell-downs in the past two weeks.
Among the heavyweights, Maybank fell 5 sen to RM8.63, Public Bank lost 3 sen to RM4.48, Petronas Chemicals dipped 13 sen to RM9.53, and IHH Healthcare decreased 11 sen to RM6.19.
Of the actives, Sapura Energy gained half-a-sen to five sen, both MQ Technology and MNC Wireless shed half-a-sen to 4 sen and 1.5 sen, respectively, Unitrade eased 1.5 sen to 28.5 sen, and Dagang NeXchange lost 3.5 sen to 87.5 sen. – June 15, 2022
