KUALA LUMPUR, July 26 — Bursa Malaysia ended lower today due to persistent profit-taking amid lack of market-moving catalysts, a dealer said.
At 5pm, the FTSE Bursa Malaysia KLCI (FBM KLCI) fell 5.53 points or 0.38 per cent to 1,463.69 from yesterday’s close of 1,469.22.
The index, which opened 2.73 points easier at 1,466.49, moved within a narrow range of between 1,459.12 and 1,466.49 throughout the day.
On the broader market, losers outpaced gainers 409 to 390, while 410 counters were unchanged, 1,100 untraded, and 27 others suspended.
Total turnover widened to 2.41 billion units worth RM1.22 billion from 2.01 billion units worth RM1.12 billion yesterday.
Rakuten Trade Sdn Bhd vice-president of equity research Thong Pak Leng however anticipates foreign funds to continue accumulating local stocks to take advantage of the local market’s relatively cheap valuations against regional peers and the weaker ringgit.
“As such, we foresee the benchmark index to trend slightly higher at the 1,460 to 1,485 range for the remaining week, with immediate resistance at 1,500 and support at 1,460 followed by 1,410,” he told Bernama.
Meanwhile, key regional indices closed mostly higher as news that the new Covid-19 cases in China dropped to the lowest level in more than a week aided market sentiment, he shared.
Singapore’s Straits Times Index rose 0.37 per cent to 3,192.12, Hong Kong’s Hang Seng Index was 1.67 per cent higher at 20,905.88, China’s SSE Composite Index improved 0.83 per cent to 3,277.44, South Korea’s KOSPI added 0.39 per cent to 2,412.96, while Japan’s Nikkei eased 0.16 per cent to 27,655.21.
Back home, among the heavyweights, Maybank fell one sen to RM8.79, while Public Bank, Petronas Chemicals, IHH Healthcare, and CIMB Group gave up two sen each to RM4.60, RM8.62, RM6.43 and RM5.20, respectively.
Of the actives, ACE Market debutant UMediC Group earned 12 sen to 44 sen, Serba Dinamik gained 2.5 sen to 11 sen, MyEG Services ticked up 1.5 sen to 75.5 sen, Bintai Kinden increased one sen to 12 sen, while Zen Tech International shed half-a-sen to five sen.
On the index board, the FBM Emas Index shed 24.14 points to 10,375.75, the FBM Emas Shariah Index slipped 24.25 points to 10,421.99, the FBMT 100 Index slid 26.52 points to 10,133.85, and the FBM ACE dipped 20.41 points to 4,729.70, while the FBM 70 was 14.72 points higher at 12,403.68.
Sector-wise, the Plantation Index declined 24.61 points to 6,849.76, the Financial Services Index trimmed 23.60 points to 16,486.02, while the Energy Index expanded 8.35 points to 641.08, and the Industrial Products and Services Index put on 0.14 of-a-point to 177.40.
The Main Market volume improved to 1.63 billion shares worth RM1.02 billion against 1.46 billion shares worth RM1.00 billion yesterday.
Warrants turnover expanded to 369.48 million units valued at RM66.36 million versus 274.01 million units valued at RM42.55 million yesterday.
The ACE Market volume increased to 409.45 million shares worth RM135.70 million from 279.55 million shares worth RM75.54 million previously.
Consumer products and services counters accounted for 131.63 million shares traded on the Main Market, industrial products and services (683.87 million), construction (52.49 million), technology (146.09 million), SPAC (nil), financial services (33.53 million), property (186.64 million), plantation (18.18 million), REITs (6.51 million), closed/fund (19,000), energy (259.70 million), healthcare (70.00 million), telecommunications and media (12.56 million), transportation and logistics (19.72 million), and utilities (10.61 million). — Bernama
