KUALA LUMPUR: Bursa Malaysia extended its losses at Monday’s closing, with local equities not spared from the Brent crude oil crash, which was trading at roughly 20% lower at US$36.07 per barrel.
A dealer said it is uncertain how long the tumbling oil price would prolong, as the oil supply risk could further worsen demand that has already been tweaked due to the COVID-19 outbreak.
At 5 pm, the FTSE Bursa Malaysia KLCI (FBM KLCI) gave up 58.94 points to 1,424.16 from Friday’s close of 1,483.10.
This was the lowest level since 2011.
After opening 23.29 points lower at 1,459.81 this morning, the local index moved between 1,422.65 and 1,459.81 throughout the day.
On the broader market, losers overwhelmed gainers 1,139 to 120, with 127 counters unchanged, 612 untraded and 17 others suspended.
Turnover increased to 6.66 billion shares worth RM3.62 bil from 2.65 billion shares worth RM2.29 bil.
AxiCorp chief market strategist Stephen Innes said that if a new production compliance agreement between the Organisation of Petroleum Exporting Countries and Russia is not reached soon, oil prices could go down to and possibly through the lowest levels of 2015/2016.
“It surely seems inevitable that the US COVID-19 headcount numbers will climb substantially higher from current levels, possibly in an explosive way, once testing is rolled out on a large scale.
“The oil market could remain under pressure for the foreseeable future until maybe Russia and the Saudis walk back their new world order for oil threat,” he added.
Malaysia, which is an oil exporting country, was badly impacted with Petronas seeing shares of PetChem declining RM1.25 to RM4.40, PetDag dropping RM1.18 to RM20.90 and PetGas sliding 44 sen to RM15.70.
Research houses have also downgraded the oil and gas sector to ‘underweight’ from ‘overweight’ and from ‘overweight’ to ‘neutral’ following the aggressive oil price war launched by Saudi Arabia.
Meanwhile, investors hope the announcement of the new Malaysian cabinet after market hours today would shed some light on its policies and directions.
“We might see some buying interest for politically linked stocks tomorrow,” a dealer said.
Regionally, Japan’s Nikkei index fell 5.07% to 19,698/76, Singapore’s Straits Times lndex eased 6.02% to 2,782.65 while Shanghai’s Stock Exchange Index declined 3.01% to 2,943.29.
Among the heavyweights, Maybank reduced 26 sen to RM8.24, Tenaga shed 10 sen to RM12.50, Public Bank fell 64 sen to RM17.02 and Petronas Chemicals erased RM1.25 to RM4.40.
Of the actives, Sapura Energy slipped 5.5 sen to 10.5 sen, Velesto Energy dropped 14.5 sen to 15.5 sen and Bumi Armada was 12 sen weaker at 16 sen.
On the index board, the FBM Emas Index depreciated 497.91 points to 9,947.06, the FBM Emas Shariah Index gave up 572.94 points to 10,547.40 and the FBM 70 tumbled 793.46 points to 11,924.12.
The FBMT 100 Index deleted 461.82 points to 9,812.41 and the FBM Ace declined 606.35 points to 4,638.82.
Sector-wise, the Industrial Products and Services Index eased 14.52 points to 120.71, the Financial Services Index dropped 519.46 points to 13,817.10 and the Plantation Index reduced 438.92 points to 6,294.12.
Main Market volume rose to 5 billion shares worth RM3.35 bil from 1.57 billion shares worth RM2.05 bil last Friday.
Warrants turnover increased to 467.87 million units worth RM61.43 mil versus 462.66 million units valued at RM78.22 mil.
Volume on the ACE Market shrank to 1.18 million shares worth RM211.11 mil compared with 616.86 million shares worth RM157.29 mil.
Consumer products and services accounted for 481.98 million shares traded on the Main Market, industrial products and services (527.31 million), construction (257.36 million), technology (361.37 million), SPAC (nil), financial services (100.27 million), property (462.33 million), plantations (99.42 million), REITs (16.85 million), closed/fund (60,900), energy (2.41 billion), healthcare (77.93 million), telecommunications and media (53.16 million), transportation and logistics (73.93 million), and utilities (81.26 million). – March 9, 2020, Bernama
