KUALA LUMPUR: Bursa Malaysia bucked the regional trend to end the week sharply lower due to broad-based selling, said Rakuten Trade Sdn Bhd equity research vice-president Thong Pak Leng.
With the key index falling 1.1%, investors exercised caution due to global inflation concerns, fueled by elevated crude oil prices and the looming US government shutdown.
Thong said some portfolio realignments and profit-taking activities from local institutions could take place as the market enters the fourth quarter of 2023.
Meanwhile, key regional indices trended mostly higher as bargain hunting emerged following yesterday’s sell-off.
“Back home, today’s heavy selling provides good opportunities to pick up stocks, especially the blue chips. The benchmark index is currently in an oversold position and we expect bargain-hunting activities to emerge next week,” he told Bernama.
At 5pm, the FTSE Bursa Malaysia KLCI (FBM KLCI) eased 15.94 points to 1,424.17 to mark its intraday low from Wednesday’s close of 1,440.11.
The benchmark index, which opened 3.72 points easier at 1,436.39, hit an intraday high of 1,436.97 in the morning session before succumbing to selling pressure in late trading.
On the broader market, decliners beat gainers 578 to 379 while 438 counters were unchanged, 990 untraded and 98 others suspended.
Turnover increased to 3.03 billion units worth RM2.43 billion from 2.97 billion units worth RM1.94 billion on Wednesday.
At the close, Bursa heavyweight counters Maybank fell 9 sen to RM8.79, Public Bank lost 8 sen to RM4.06, CIMB decreased 12 sen to RM5.43, Tenaga Nasional and Petronas Chemicals slid 3 sen each to RM9.99 and RM7.19, respectively.
Of the actives, Evergreen Max Cash added 7.5 sen to 42.5 sen, KNM rose 0.5 sen to 12.5 sen, while Ekovest went down 0.5 to 55.5 sen.
Both Sapura Energy and Widad were flat at 5.5 sen and 51 sen, respectively.
On the index board, the FBM Emas Index declined by 80.87 points to 10,582.27, the FBMT 100 Index was 82.34 points easier at 10,244.50 and the FBM Emas Shariah Index went down 47.28 points to 10,874.52.
The FBM ACE Index improved by 16.57 points to 5,175.24 and the FBM 70 Index advanced by 26.02 points to 14,193.27.
Sector-wise, the plantation index eased 10.89 points to 6,880.35, the industrial products services index narrowed by 1.17 points to 171.49 and the energy index fell 5.07 points to 893.74.
The financial services index tumbled 205.46 points to 15,918.17.
The Main Market volume stood at 1.83 billion units worth RM2.1 billion from 1.88 billion units worth RM1.66 billion on Wednesday.
Warrant turnover increased to 351.67 million units valued at RM44.33 million against 328.79 million units valued at RM37.32 million previously.
The ACE Market volume improved to 845.43 million shares worth RM280.84 million from 749.08 million shares worth RM241.13 million previously.
Consumer products and services counters accounted for 259.49 million shares traded on the Main Market, industrial products and services (419.39 million); construction (141.96 million); technology (121.78 million); SPAC (nil); financial services (110.2 million); property (233.47 million); plantation (41.95 million); REITs (12.88 million), closed/fund (43,700); energy (261.65 million); healthcare (66.89 million); telecommunications and media (34.81 million); transportation and logistics (60.24 million) and utilities (71.89 million).
