KUALA LUMPUR, July 24 — Bursa Malaysia ended lower across board today as the market pull back wiped out yesterday’s gains.

At the close today, market benchmark FTSE Bursa Malaysia KLCI (FBM KLCI) declined 16.81 points or 1.05 per cent to 1,589.61 as heavy profit-taking was seen in 24 out of 30 index counters.

On the overall market, the number of counters that fell stood at 718, far leaving behind gainers totalling 383, while 371 counters were unchanged, 528 untraded and 16 others suspended.

Healthcare index continued its downward momentum, slipping 3.58 per cent to 3,665.70.

Volume meanwhile shrank to 9.88 billion units worth RM5.18 billion from yesterday’s 12.12 billion units worth RM6.65 billion.

An equity analyst said profit-taking emerged when the value of the shares was believed to have reached a certain level of high, prompting short-term players to liquidate their positions in the market.

"If we see from the healthcare index perspective, the stocks under the index have seen a steady increase for a long period of time.

"With vaccine optimism now lowered following the announcement that the vaccine would not be available till next year, investors had pulled out from the market and reassess their valuation,” she said.

As for the heavyweights’ performance, she said that despite market optimism yesterday, the main index retreated after breaching the 1,600-point psychological level.

"This indicates that the immediate resistance now stands at 1,600 and without any new market catalyst, the index will continue to hover between 1,580 to 1,610,” she added.

However, the analyst said that due to the strong demand from the glove sector which has driven the market higher, an inverted hammer pattern was seen throughout the market trend.

"This is indicated by the constant buying and selling pressure, but the overall index remains pretty much steady, to a point it reaches a six-month high last week,” she said.

For the heavyweights, the downtrend was led by Top Glove which declined 68 sen to RM25.44, followed by Petronas Chemicals which fell 15 sen to RM6.26, Hartalega dipped 32 sen to RM17.86. Petronas Dagangan which was 94 sen lower at RM20.62, and Public Bank slid 20 sen to RM17.72.

Among the actives, Nexgram was still in favour, rising 1.5 sen to six sen, backed by the launch of its Covid-19 project with the Malaysian Tourism Council and the contract to sell personal protective equipment in Indonesia.

Iris Corporation was the most active stock, gaining four sen to 29.5 sen as the company aims to be the main supplier for identification cards.

On the index board, the FBM Emas Index fell 110.40 points to 11,272.18, the FBMT 100 Index slipped 111.98 points to 11,114.05 and the FBM Emas Shariah Index was 132.15 points weaker at 13,098.05.

The FBM 70 declined 120.59 points to 14,154.28 and the FBM ACE was 10.79 points weaker at 7,898.06.

Sector-wise, the Financial Services Index decreased by 97.00 points to 13,417.64, the Plantation Index eased 4.81 points to 7,115.03 and the Industrial Products and Services Index shed 1.97 points to 139.65.

Main Market volume declined to 4.06 billion shares worth RM3.59 billion from yesterday’s 4.24 billion shares valued at RM4.21 billion.

Warrants turnover, meanwhile, rose to 773.90 million units worth RM251.70 million from Thursday’s 675.45 million units worth RM230.79.

Volume on the ACE Market dwindled to 5.04 billion shares worth RM1.33 billion from 7.20 billion shares worth RM2.20 billion yesterday.

Consumer products and services accounted for 800.90 million shares traded on the Main Market, industrial products and services (646.36 million), construction (314.54 million), technology (902.08 million), SPAC (nil), financial services (44.34 million), property (250.29 million), plantations (232.68 million), REITs (8.71 million), closed/fund (36,600), energy (357.93 million), healthcare (137.79 million), telecommunications and media (59.11 million), transportation and logistics (280.63 million) and utilities (27.70 million). — Bernama