BURSA Malaysia ended the morning session in negative territory today in line with other Asian stock markets, on continued selling pressure due to concerns over the sharp drop in global oil prices, dealers said.
At midday, the benchmark FTSE Bursa Malaysia KLCI (FBM KLCI) lost 22.62 points to 1,390.50 from 1,413.12 at Monday’s close.
The key index, which had opened 5.89 points lower at 1,407.23, moved between 1,384.94 and 1,407.23 in the morning session.
On the broader market, losers outpaced gainers 842 to 133, while 207 counters were unchanged, 730 untraded and 20 others suspended.
Turnover stood at 4.23 billion shares worth RM1.78 bil.
A dealer said US oil prices were back in positive territory after a stunning collapse earlier today which saw the price crashing below zero and trading at the lowest level since NYMEX opened futures trading in 1983.
He said the Covid-19 pandemic has caused oil demand to drop so rapidly that the world is running out of room to store the oil.
“At the same time, Russia and Saudi Arabia flooded the world with excess supply. Analysts also attributed Monday’s plunge to frantic last-minute trading because of the quickly expiring May contract,” he added.
Among Bursa heavyweights, Maybank slipped five sen to RM7.64, TNB and IHH Healthcare declined four sen each to RM12.56 and RM5.19, respectively, Public Bank fell 26 sen to RM15.90 while Petronas Chemicals decreased 20 sen to RM5.52.
Among the actives, Lambo eased half-a-sen to 1.5 sen, AirAsia X was flat at 12.5 sen, while NETX Holdings earned half-a-sen to 1.5 sen and MSM Malaysia added two sen to 62 sen.
On the index board, the FBM Emas Index decreased 168.36 points to 9,655.55, the FBM Emas Shariah Index lost 178.28 points to 10,663.04, the FBMT 100 Index erased 161.83 points to 9,540.97, the FBM 70 dropped 221.05 points to 11,424.03 and the FBM ACE edged down 200.96 points to 4,312.67.
Sector-wise, the Financial Services Index shed 198.56 points to 12,526.27, the Industrial Products and Services Index fell 3.26 points to 117.56 and the Plantation Index dipped 116.85 points to 6,239.10. — April 21, 2020, Bernama
