KUALA LUMPUR: Bursa Malaysia ended lower today, dragged by losses in selected heavyweights led by banking stocks, with the local benchmark index declining by 0.59%.
At 5 pm, the FTSE Bursa Malaysia KLCI (FBM KLCI) fell 9.35 points to 1,577.98 from yesterday’s close of 1,587.33.
After opening 2.69 points weaker at 1,584.64 this morning, the market bellwether moved between 1,576.90 and 1,595.38 throughout the day.
The overall market breadth on Bursa Malaysia was negative with losers outpacing gainers 509 to 397, while 362 counters remained unchanged, 718 were untraded and 38 others suspended.
Turnover increased to 3.07 billion shares worth RM2.57 bil from 2.65 billion shares worth RM1.93 bil on Tuesday.
A dealer noted that Bank Negara Malaysia’s Monetary Policy Committee reduced the overnight policy rate (OPR) to 2.75% from 3.0% today as a pre-emptive measure to secure improving growth trajectory amid price stability and said: “While this is good news for domestic households, lower OPR will also translate into cheaper borrowing costs, therefore affecting banks’ profitability.”
Among the heavyweights on Bursa Malaysia, Maybank eased five sen to RM8.55, Public Bank declined 46 sen to RM19.02 and CIMB Group lost 10 sen to RM5.03, Tenaga was flat at RM12.88 and Petronas Chemicals decreased three sen to RM6.96.
The most active counter was ACE Market debutant Powerwell Holdings Bhd, which rose 3.5 sen to 28.5 sen, with 304.12 million shares traded.
As for other actives, Vortex eased half-a-sen to 8.5 sen and Supermax added nine sen to RM1.54.
On the scoreboard, the FBM Emas Index was 41.96 points lower at 11,277.71, the FBM Emas Shariah Index gained 20.52 points to 12,013.69 and the FBMT 100 Index declined 45.16 points to 11,061.30.
The FBM 70 rose by 25.23 points to 14,229.69 and the FBM ACE added 2.98 points to 5,638.07.
Sector-wise, the Industrial Products and Services Index inched up 0.42 point to 152.86, the Financial Services Index fell 210.43 points to 15,114.96 and the Plantation Index lost 35.03 points to 7,484.73.
Main Market volume increased to 1.87 billion shares worth RM2.28 bil from 1.68 billion shares worth RM1.72 bil yesterday.
Warrants turnover increased to 399.21 million units worth RM66.19 mil from 379.57 million units worth RM69.09 mil.
Volume on the ACE Market swelled to 804.99 million shares worth RM220.44 mil from 592.87 million shares worth RM133.08 mil.
Consumer products and services accounted for 233.89 million shares traded on the Main Market, industrial products and services (232.88 million), construction (258.46 million), technology (180.08 million), SPAC (nil), financial services (57.97 million), property (152.55 million), plantations (68.21 million), REITs (22.63 million), closed/fund (50,500), energy (453.85 million), healthcare (184.83 million), telecommunications and media (29.16 million), transportation and logistics (61.24 million) and utilities (34.60 million). – Jan 22, 2020, Bernama
