Bursa Malaysia closes lower in line with global markets on rising geopolitical tensions

KUALA LUMPUR: Bursa Malaysia ended lower today in line with global markets following rising tensions in the Middle East between Washington and Tehran.

At the close, the FTSE Bursa Malaysia KLCI (FBM KLCI) was down 1.36% or 21.94 points to 1,589.10 compared with yesterday’s close of 1,611.04.

On the broader market, losers outpaced gainers 883 to 171 while 284 counters were unchanged, 599 untraded and 13 others suspended.

Volume meanwhile increased to 3.86 billion shares worth RM2.22 bil compared with 2.98 billion shares worth RM1.79 bil yesterday.

An analyst said the local market performance tracked the overnight losses on Wall Street which was down 119.70 points while Japan’s Nikkei fell 370.96 points or 1.57% today following retaliation by Iran towards the US.

She added that the local bourse will remain volatile in the near term as investors await US President Donald Trump’s address to the country later today on the latest developments in the Middle East.

“If the US retaliates in any way, the local bourse will continue to face pressure despite a prediction of a rise in oil price. However, the index will not fall more than 30 points as foreign equity holding is only about 35% while the rest is controlled by government institutions.

“In addition, top composite index weighted stocks are also linked to the government,” she said.

On the technical front, she said, for the remaining trading sessions this week, the index was expected to trade between 1,588 and 1,605 if the tensions between the two nations remained high.

On heavyweights, Maybank declined 11 sen to RM8.54, Public Bank fell 52 sen to RM19.60, TNB shed eight sen to RM12.98 while Petronas Chemicals was down 10 sen to RM7.47.

For the top losers, consumer counters led the losses with Nestle shedding RM1.30 to RM146.20, Dutch Lady declined RM1.00 to RM48 and F&N dropped 70 sen to RM33.70.

As tensions remain high, gold retailers emerged the top gainers for the day with Poh Kong gaining 16.5 sen to 70.5 sen, up 30%, while Tomei added 12.5 sen to 59.5 sen.

On the overall index, FBM Emas Index was down 152.28 points to 11,305.66 and the FBM Emas Shariah Index was 138.78 points lower at 11,950.26.

The FBMT 100 Index weakened 144.52 points to 11,107.80, the FBM 70 slid 147.96 points to 14,160.80 while the FBM Ace erased 73.79 points to 5,380.65.

Sector-wise, the Industrial Products and Services Index slid 1.83 points to 154.57, the Financial Services Index reduced 260.57 points to 15,452.84 and the Plantation Index dipped 116.87 points to 7,640.66.

Main Market volume increased to 2.73 billion units worth RM1.97 bil compared with 2.20 billion units worth RM1.57 bil yesterday.

Warrants turnover rose to 387.75 million units worth RM65.01 mil from 233.36 million units valued at RM42.18 mil on Tuesday.

Volume on the ACE Market, meanwhile, expanded to 741.04 million shares worth RM188.93 mil against yesterday’s 643.12 million shares worth RM179.49 mil.

Consumer products and services accounted for 302.68 million shares traded on the Main Market, industrial products and services (223.52 million), construction (126.18 million), technology (183.77 million), SPAC (nil), financial services (176.73 million), property (86.52 million), plantations (156.61 million), REITs (26.94 million), closed/fund (2,138), energy (388.58 million), healthcare (57.57 million), telecommunications and media (94.64 million), transportation and logistics (88.92 million) and utilities (58.28 million). – Jan 8, 2020 Bernama

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