KUALA LUMPUR: Bursa Malaysia reversed its uptrend momentum earlier today to end on a softer note as profit-taking in selected index-linked counters emerged amid the mixed performance of regional peers and rising oil prices.
At 5 pm, the FTSE Bursa Malaysia KLCI (FBM KLCI) eased 1.47 points to 1,356.03 from 1,357.5 at Friday’s close.
The key index, which opened 0.44 point better at 1,357.94, moved between 1,352.78 and 1,359.68 throughout the day.
Rakuten Trade Sdn Bhd head of research Kenny Yee said momentum on the local bourse was tracking the mixed regional indices while the improvement in oil prices did not help much to lift interest for riskier assets.
“Foreign selling has reduced and we can see buying support coming in from the retailers, which managed to help cushion the market from further losses.
“However, investors remained cautious as sentiment was still largely impacted by Covid-19 pandemic and the prolonged Movement Control Order,” he added.
He saw the next resistance at 1,360 and support at the 1,300 level.
Market breadth on Bursa turned negative with losers trumping gainers 497 to 307, while 357 counters were unchanged, 757 untraded and 32 others suspended.
Turnover decreased to 3.12 billion shares worth RM1.51 bil from 3.72 billion shares worth RM1.67 bil registered on Friday.
Selling was spotted mainly in the small capitalisation stocks with the FBM Small Cap Index dipping 152.85 points to 10,842.49.
Meanwhile, the Organisation of Petroleum Exporting Countries (OPEC), Russia and other oil-producing nations on Sunday agreed to cut production by nearly 10 million barrels per day, or a tenth of the global supply, in May and June.
The move, aimed at stabilising the market price following the collapse in demand due to the Covid-19 pandemic as well as the multi-week oil price war between Russia and its OPEC allies, was the single largest output cut in history.
The international benchmark Brent crude jumped 5.5% to US$33 per barrel following the coalition’s announcement.
Of the heavyweights, IHH Healthcare gained two sen to RM5.11 and Maxis bagged 13 sen to RM5.29, while Tenaga and Petronas Chemicals were flat at RM12.04 and RM4.82 respectively.
Maybank trimmed five sen to RM7.45, Public Bank eased four sen to RM15.84, and CIMB slipped two sen to RM3.50.
Of the actives, Minetech added 2.5 sen to 23 sen, Velesto inched down half-a-sen to 15.5 sen and Hibiscus Petroleum shed one sen to 48.5 sen. Meanwhile, Sapura Energy, Bumi Armada, Sanichi and Lambo were flat at 10 sen, 17 sen, 4.5 sen and one sen, respectively.
On the index board, the FBM Emas Index depreciated 34.01 points to 9,358.04, the FBMT 100 Index decreased 30.31 points to 9,258.35 and the FBM Emas Shariah Index slid 31.52 points to 10,331.59.
The FBM ACE trimmed 6.02 points to 4,011.01 while the FBM 70 gave up 120.12 points to 10,894.63.
Sector-wise, the Financial Services Index fell 50.73 points to 12,228.18, the Industrial Products and Services Index inched down 0.63 point to 108.87 and the Plantation Index was 42.85 points lower at 6,204.8.
Main Market volume narrowed to 2.35 billion shares valued at RM1.37 bil from 2.99 billion shares valued at RM1.57 bil recorded on Friday.
Warrants turnover declined to 159.46 million units worth RM22.58 mil from 173.51 million units worth RM151.80 mil.
Volume on the ACE Market, however, increased to 610.13 million shares valued at RM113.51 mil from 559.85 million shares valued at RM85.97 mil previously.
Consumer products and services accounted for 340.94 million shares traded on the Main Market, industrial products and services (472.05 million), construction (220.52 million), technology (220.09 million), SPAC (nil), financial services (25.83 million), property (185.92 million), plantations (45.91 million), REITs (7.27 million), closed/fund (9,000), energy (677.48 million), healthcare (36.78 million), telecommunications and media (34.68 million), transportation and logistics (63.01 million), and utilities (17.26 million). – April 13, 2020, Bernama
