Bursa Malaysia closes in the red on foreign selling

KUALA LUMPUR: Bursa Malaysia ended in the red today as the ongoing political turmoil remained unresolved, clouding the country’s outlook, and led to heightened selling pressure among foreign investors.

At the close, the benchmark FTSE Bursa Malaysia KLCI (FBM KLCI) fell 1.52% or 22.95 points to 1,482.64, after opening 20.69 points lower at 1,484.90 points at 9am.

From Monday until today’s close, the total outflow was recorded at RM1.1 bil, the largest foreign outflow for this year compared with last week’s RM447.9 mil.

On the broader market, losers were on fire as they trounced gainers 1,055 to 126 with 229 counters unchanged, 633 untraded and 65 suspended.

Turnover swelled to 5.08 billion shares worth RM4.74 bil from yesterday’s 3.51 billion shares worth RM2.66 bil.

An analyst said with the continued political uncertainty, which is expected to extend for another week, foreign investors would continue to withdraw from the market until a clearer direction is seen.

“With the special (Dewan Rakyat) sitting scheduled to take place on March 2 being cancelled, it is now up to the Agong to determine the next step. Until then, the market will continue to be heavily influenced by the political developments,” she added.

Following the conclusion of the Rulers Council meeting today, the palace had released a decree that the Yang di-Pertuan Agong Al-Sultan Abdullah Ri’ayatuddin Al-Mustafa Billah Shah has yet to have a clearer picture on which faction has the majority support of the parliament.

In the statement, it said that the palace will continue to engage with party leaders who have representatives in the Dewan Rakyat to give them a chance to select a name as their prime ministerial candidate.

On the technical front, the analyst said, the support level for the FBM KLCI has been lowered to 1,460 with the immediate resistance at 1,500.

On the broader market, constant outflow was seen across board with heavy selling in construction, energy, and products and services stocks.

Dayang Enterprise was the top loser for the energy sector after it slid 24 sen to RM2.33 with 20.50 million shares changing hands, Gamuda was the top loser among construction stocks, declining 30 sen to RM3.31 with 22.80 million shares traded, while Petronas Chemicals led the losers among industrial products and services, shedding 40 sen to RM5.40 with 17.29 million shares traded.

On index-linked stocks, 26 out of the 30 component stocks recorded declines, with Maybank falling 10 sen to RM8.42, Tenaga Nasional shed 40 sen to RM12.10, MISC slipped 17 sen to RM7.59, Public Bank lost 20 sen to RM17.10 and Maxis eased eight sen to RM5.43.

On the index board, the FBM Emas Index dropped 205.90 points to 10,478.77, the FBMT 100 Index decreased 188.41 points to 10,300.80 and the FBM ACE sank 346.83 points to 5,238.29.

The FBM Emas Shariah Index slipped 233.63 points to 11,121.15 and the FBM 70 declined 354.99 points to 12,873.92.

Sector-wise, the Industrial Products and Services Index eased 5.83 points at 132.80, while the Financial Services Index slid 163.02 points to 14,330.65, while the Plantation Index dipped 146.72 points to 6,809.71.

Main Market volume leapt to 3.35 billion shares worth RM4.39 bil compared with 2.28 billion shares worth RM2.35 bil yesterday.

Warrants turnover increased to 567.34 million units worth RM96.29 mil against 455.20 million units worth RM83.09 mil yesterday.

Volume on the ACE Market rose to 1.16 billion units worth RM251.82 mil from yesterday’s 776.48 million units worth RM225.51 mil.

Consumer products and services accounted for 740.67 million shares traded on the Main Market, industrial products and services (455.77 million), construction (235.61 million), technology (383.75 million), SPAC (nil), financial services (110.51 million), property (262.65 million), plantations (70.27 million), REITs (22.52 million), closed/fund (37,300), energy (735.80 million), healthcare (59.94 million), telecommunications and media (72.58 million), transportation and logistics (110.15 million), and utilities (94.13 million). – Feb 28, 2020, Bernama

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