KUALA LUMPUR, Sept 18 — Bursa Malaysia ended today’s volatile trading session in the red as losses in bank counters widened, with Public Bank and Maybank leading the downtrend.
At 5pm, the benchmark FTSE Bursa Malaysia KLCI (FBM KLCI) lost 6.44 points to close at 1,506.63 from yesterday’s close of 1,513.07.
The index opened 1.29 points lower at 1,511,78 and moved between 1,503.43 and 1,524.07 throughout the day.
However, gainers surpassed losers 629 to 441, while 400 counters were unchanged, 615 untraded and 41 others suspended.
Total volume was lower at 6.87 billion shares worth RM5.07 billion versus 7.53 billion shares worth RM6.2 billion yesterday.
Bank Islam Malaysia Bhd’s economist Adam Mohamed Rahim said the market had reversed its earlier gains, which was mainly contributed by plantation counters.
“It’s likely that investors embarked on profit taking in the banking sectors following the recent uptrend and shifted their interest to plantation counters.
“Banking counters soared recently after Bank Negara Malaysia kept its overnight policy rate at 1.75 per cent, in addition to the end of the moratorium period soon,” he told Bernama.
On a sectoral basis, the Bursa Malaysia Plantation Index gained the most, rising by 0.7 per cent today following the rise in crude palm oil futures, which increased above RM3,000 per tonne in line with higher crude oil prices.
“One of the beneficiaries of the higher crude oil price was Petronas Dagangan, ending 4.1 per cent higher,” he noted.
Oil benchmark Brent crude rose 0.07 per cent to US$43.33 (RM179) per tonne as the market responded favourably to the outcome from the Organisation of the Petroleum Exporting Countries’ (Opec) meeting.
Opec and its allies have indicated that they would crack down on countries which have failed to comply with output cuts.
Overall, 17 out of the 30 FBM KLCI index constituents were in the red.
Of the heavyweights, Public Bank lost 56 sen to RM15.94, Maybank went down 16 sen to RM7.21, while both TNB and Hong Leong Bank dropped 14 sen to RM10.90 and RM14.76, respectively.
Sime Darby Plantation declined 10 sen to RM5.03 and Digi inched down seven sen to RM4.08.
In contrast, Top Glove remained higher, increasing 19 sen to RM7.98, while Axiata improved 10 sen to RM3.15 and Petronas Dagangan jumped 84 sen to RM21.16.
Meanwhile, MCT rose one sen to 20 sen, Kanger was flat at 30 sen, Ablegroup went up three sen to 17.5 sen and CME was unchanged at 11.5 sen.
On the index board, the FBM Emas Index fell 21.07 points to 10,837.62 and the FBM Emas Shariah Index was 47.54 points higher at 12,837.07.
The FBM 70 rose 42.71 points to 14,032.03, the FBMT 100 Index gave up 25.88 points to 10,651.74, and the FBM ACE slid 84.88 points to 11,061.54.
Sector-wise, the Financial Services Index reduced 165.50 points to 12,569.35, the Plantation Index improved 54.25 points to 7,151.95, while the Industrial Products and Services Index went up 0.79 of-a-point to 136.70.
Main Market volume depreciated to 4.15 billion shares worth RM4.06 billion compared to 4.49 billion shares worth RM4.83 billion yesterday.
Warrants turnover weakened to 726.19 million units valued at RM178.63 million from 971.81 million units valued at RM299.81 million.
Volume on the ACE Market slipped to 1.98 billion shares worth RM827.64 million vis-a-vis 2.06 billion shares worth RM1.08 billion previously.
Consumer products and services accounted for 705.66 million shares traded on the Main Market, industrial products and services (1.08 billion), construction (298.92 million), technology (159.39 million), SPAC (nil), financial services (71.51 million), property (518.16 million), plantations (541.73 million), REITs (16.52 million), closed/fund (8,400), energy (449.28 million), healthcare (176.37 million), telecommunications and media (52.63 million), transportation and logistics (57.15 million), and utilities (31.67 million). — Bernama
