BURSA Malaysia remained in the red at mid-morning, being broadly lower on persistent selling in heavyweight stocks.
The local bourse continued to track the performance of regional peers after an overnight drop on Wall Street.
At 11am, the FTSE Bursa Malaysia KLCI (FBM KLCI) was 9.75 points lower at 1,481.28 from Thursday’s close of 1,491.03. The index had opened 4.91 points lower at 1,492.36.
On the broader market, losers thumped gainers by 501 to 205, with 256 counters unchanged, 1,035 not traded and 17 others suspended.
Turnover amounted to 1.06 billion shares worth RM648.59 mil.
Hong Leong Investment Bank Bhd, in a research note, said equities sold off again in the US and Europe overnight, following Wednesday’s brief rebound as extended Covid-19 fear weighed on investor sentiment, dragging major indices back into the red.
“Markets grappled with headlines of mounting cases and death tolls around the world,” it added.
Among the heavyweights, Maybank and IHH gained two sen each to RM8.49 and RM5.62 respectively, Tenaga added four sen to RM12.62 and Public Bank rose eight sen to RM17.90.
CIMB was flat at RM4.54.
Of the actives, Xidelang eased two sen to 14.5 sen while Vortex, Priceworth and Bumi Armada were flat at eight sen, 1.5 sen and 29.5 sen respectively.
On the index board, the FBM Emas Index added 36.35 points to 10,540.88, the FBM Emas Shariah Index advanced 49.38 points to 11,200.38, the FBM 70 rose 88.34 points to 12,904.0 and the FBM Ace increased 76.07 points to 5,321.29.
The FBMT 100 Index was 34.11 points higher at 10,363.09.
Sector-wise, the Industrial Products and Services Index edged up 1.42 points to 136.69, the Financial Services Index improved 5.89 points to 14,456.43 and the Plantation Index expanded 10.31 points to 6,762.59. – March 6, 2020, Bernama
