BURSA Malaysia extended its decline to end lower today in tandem with regional weakness, with persistent selling mainly on plantation, industrial products and services, as well as technology stocks, a dealer said.
At 5pm, the FTSE Bursa Malaysia KLCI (FBM KLCI) dipped 15.16 points to 1,549.18 from last Friday’s close of 1,564.34.
The barometer index, which opened 0.54 of-a-point lower at 1,563.80 to record its intraday high, hit a low of 1,546.64 in the late afternoon session.
On the broader market, losers thumped gainers 827 to 183, while 333 counters were unchanged, 902 untraded, and 17 others suspended.
Total turnover increased to 3.22 billion units worth RM2.03 bil versus 3.10 billion units worth RM2.43 bil last Friday.
Rakuten Trade Sdn Bhd vice-president of equity research Thong Pak Leng said the key regional markets were weaker, save for Shanghai, following the negative cue from Wall Street last Friday.
“Moreover, the tightening lockdown in Shanghai, China weighed on investor sentiment as this may have impacted the global economic growth,” he told Bernama.
On the domestic front, he noted that the FBM KLCI has broken its 1,580 and 1,550 support in two consecutive trading days.
“We believe the market undertone will remain cautious amid weak regional performance although bargain-hunting activities may prevail,” he said.
Among the heavyweights, Petronas Chemicals declined 20 sen to RM10, Press Metal Aluminium fell 18 sen to RM5.20, while IOI Corporation and Sime Darby Plantation both slipped 17 sen to RM4.39 and RM4.92, respectively.
Of the actives, Serba Dinamik slid 24 sen to 11 sen, Euro Holdings dipped 3.5 sen to 19 sen, Techna-X inched down half-a-sen to 11.5 sen, PUC was 1 sen lower at 5 sen, and Hibiscus Petroleum eased 3 sen to RM1.37. – May 9, 2022
