Bursa Malaysia ends marginally lower on Thursday’s close

BURSA Malaysia’s benchmark index ended slightly lower by 0.17% today on continuous selling in heavyweights led by Maybank, Public Bank and Petronas Chemicals.

At 5pm, the benchmark FTSE Bursa Malaysia KLCI (FBM KLCI) shed 2.58 points to 1,527.75 from 1,530.33 at Wednesday’s close after opening 0.89 of-a-point easier at 1,529.44.

The key index fluctuated between 1,525.45 and 1,532.82 throughout the trading session.

The overall market breadth. however, was positive with advancers outpacing decliners 518 to 402, while 416 counters were unchanged, 913 untraded, and 27 others suspended.

Total turnover eased to 3.39 billion units worth RM2.25 bil from Wednesday’s 3.57 billion units worth RM2.61 bil.

Rakuten Trade Sdn Bhd vice-president of equity research Thong Pak Leng said the FBM KLCI hovered around its 1,530 support level today and the online stockbroking firm reckoned the accumulation of stocks to persist on dips.

“We continue to maintain our cautiously optimistic view and expect bargain-hunting activities to emerge, while on the other hand, we remain cautious given the increasing market volatility around the world.

“As such, we expect the benchmark index to trade within the 1,530-1,540 range towards the weekend,” he told Bernama.

Bank Negara Malaysia today maintained the overnight policy rate at 1.75% during its first Monetary Policy Committee meeting in 2022.

Heavyweights, Maybank declined 4 sen to RM8.24, Public Bank and IHH Healthcare fell 1 sen each to RM4.17 and RM6.55, respectively, while Petronas Chemicals slipped 3 sen to RM8.95 and CIMB trimmed 8 sen to RM5.25.

Meanwhile, Press Metal soared 24 sen to RM6.12, Petronas Gas rose 8 sen to RM16.82 and TNB was flat at RM9.07.

Of the actives, ACE market debutant Coraza soared 36.5 sen to 64.5 sen, Dagang NeXchange increased 5.5 sen to 96.5 sen, G3 Global and MMAG were both flat at eight sen respectively, while Ageson slipped one sen to 2.5 sen and SMTrack inched down half-a-sen to 22 sen.  – Jan 20, 2022

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