KUALA LUMPUR, May 4 — Bursa Malaysia reversed its gains and settled lower today, amid a mixed broader market.

At 5pm, the benchmark FTSE Bursa Malaysia KLCI (FBM KLCI) lost 2.48 points to 1,588.25 from Monday’s close of 1,590.73.

The index opened 0.94 of-a-point better at 1,591.67 and moved between 1,587.87 and 1,597.42 throughout the day.

On the broader market, losers led gainers 529 versus 524, while 440 counters were unchanged, 659 untraded and six others suspended.

Total volume rose to 7.48 billion shares worth RM4.13 billion from 6.68 billion shares worth RM4.26 billion on Monday.

A dealer said investors were taking profit off glove stocks, after a recent rally that was sparked by a resurgence of COVID-19 infections in global economies.

Hartalega lost five sen to RM9.93, Supermax slid six sen to RM5.82, Top Glove eased three sen to RM5.45, Comfort Gloves fell seven sen to RM2.65, Careplus erased 12 sen to RM2.78 and Kossan Rubber shed eight sen to RM4.38.

Bank Islam Malaysia Bhd economist Adam Mohamed Rahim said sentiment across Asia remained subdued as new COVID-19 waves were hitting India and some Southeast Asian countries, threatening millions of lives and an economic recovery in the region.

"Therefore, this outweighed the positive economic data points such as Malaysia’s Purchasing Managers’ Index, which rose to a nine-year high of 53.9 in April from 49.9 in March 2021, the highest since July 2012.

"Among sectors, the Bursa Malaysia technology index decline the most by 1.2 per cent while the Bursa Malaysia plantation index gained the most by 1.1 per cent,” he told Bernama.

Of heavyweights, Maybank dropped three sen to RM8.24, Public Bank reduced one sen to RM4.12, Petronas Chemicals rose one sen to RM8.18 and Tenaga bagged four sen to RM9.97.

Among the active counters, Focus Dynamics was one sen lower at 10.5 sen, Velesto Energy was flat at 16 sen, Vortex contracted one sen to 13 sen while BJCorp gained 4.5 sen to 36.5 sen.

Top gainers were Transocean which improved RM1.02 to RM6.20, followed by Hengyuan which advanced 34 sen to RM5.60 and Gopeng strengthened 29.5 sen to RM1.13.

On the index board, the FBM Emas Index was 6.3 points weaker at 11,701.18, the FBM Emas Shariah Index slid 13.66 points to 13,134.32, the FBMT 100 Index eased 12.28 points to 11,348.56, the FBM 70 was 4.34 higher at 15,415.58, and the FBM ACE fell 83.21 points to 8,627.40.

Sector-wise, the Industrial Products and Services Index increased 1.29 points to 199.23, the Plantation Index expanded 74.76 points to 6,992.01 and the Financial Services Index gave up 7.94 points to 14,839.22.

Main Market volume improved to 4.63 billion shares worth RM3.23 billion compared with 3.94 billion shares worth RM3.19 billion on Monday.

Warrants turnover decreased to 311.09 million units valued at RM37.8 million from 338.94 million units valued at RM39.42 million previously.

Volume on the ACE Market rose to 2.54 billion shares worth RM858.9 million from 2.41 billion shares worth RM1.03 billion.

Consumer products and services accounted for 394.16 million shares traded on the Main Market, industrial products and services (1.80 billion), construction (103.28 million), technology (384.31 million), SPAC (nil), financial services (35.35 million), property (470.61 million), plantation (442.41 million), REITs (5.36 million), closed/fund (5,000), energy (522.69 million), healthcare (102.85 million), telecommunications and media (133.62 million), transportation and logistics (214.35 million), and utilities (8.24 million). — Bernama