KUALA LUMPUR, Dec 10 — Bursa Malaysia fell further at mid-afternoon, dragged down by losses in Top Glove.
At 3.15pm, the benchmark FTSE Bursa Malaysia KLCI (FBM KLCI) lost 7.51 points to 1,494.28 compared with 1,501.79 at Thursday’s close.
The market bellwether opened 0.14 of-a-point lower at 1,501.65.
On the broader market, losers outpaced gainers 581 to 254, while 392 counters were unchanged, 1.078 untraded, and 52 others suspended.
Turnover stood at 1.65 billion units valued at RM985.31 million.
Heavyweights Top Glove trimmed 18 sen or 7.5 per cent to RM2.23 after the company announced a sharp drop in earnings for the first quarter of financial year 2022 (Q1 FY22).
The glove maker said net profit fell to RM185.72 million in Q1 FY22 from RM2.36 billion recorded in the same quarter in the previous year.
Revenue fell to RM1.58 billion from RM4.76 billion a year ago amid normalised average selling price (ASP) and demand following mass vaccine rollout on a global scale, while customers remained cautious on replenishing orders.
It said raw material costs also reduced at a much slower pace in comparison to glove ASP, thereby impacting profit.
Meanwhile, Sime Darby Plantation slipped 10 sen to RM3.75, while CIMB and Axiata lost five sen to RM5.19 and RM3.79 respectively.
Of the actives, Malaysian Genomics gave up 13.5 sen to 68.5 sen, while Kanger International, Sapura Energy and ATA IMS were all unchanged at two sen, five sen and 50.5 sen respectively.
On the index board, the FBM Emas Index dipped 62.85 points to 10,888.98, the FBMT 100 Index slipped 58.30 points to 10,596.28, and the FBM Emas Shariah Index decreased 84.71 points to 11,756.68.
The FBM 70 fell 97.69 points to 14,077.79 and the FBM ACE slid 77.39 points to 6,204.69.
Sector-wise, the Industrial Products and Services Index shed 1.15 points to 193.18, the Financial Services Index declined 28.16 points to 15,136.97, while the Plantation Index lost 40.09 points to 6,454.91. — Bernama
