KUALA LUMPUR: Bursa Malaysia ended its trading session today lower across-the-board on selling pressure, dragged down by losses in most heavyweights including Nestle, BAT and Genting Malaysia, said a dealer.
At 5 pm, the FTSE Bursa Malaysia KLCI (FBM KLCI) fell one per cent or 17.02 points to 1,684.97, from Monday’s close of 1,701.99.
The index opened 3.27 points easier at 1,698.72 and moved between 1,683.15 and 1,699.09 throughout the day.
Volume rose to 2.17 billion units worth RM2.61 billion from 1.74 billion units worth RM1.41 billion on Monday.
Market breadth was negative, with losers thumping gainers 687 to 199, while 321 counters were unchanged, 706 untraded and 23 others suspended.
M&A Securities Sdn Bhd Chief Dealing Officer R Sundararajah said the stock market was further pressured by external news, namely US President Donald Trump’s renewed threat to raise tariffs on Chinese imports.
“This has put a dampener to the highly awaited Group of 20 summit, as the world is hoping for some positive outcome when Trump and Chinese President Xi Jinping meet on the sidelines of the summit at the end of this week,” Sundararajah told Bernama.
On the local front, he said the market was also impacted by Morgan Stanley’s announcement to cut Malaysia to “Underweight” in view of the falling oil prices, which may have an impact on the budget as it was based on oil price of US$70 per barrel.
“The action by Morgan Stanley (according to a news report) has also negatively affected the FBM KLCI today.
“We expect the market to be trading around this level for the next few days in anticipation of some positive news at the G20 summit this weekend,” he added.
Among heavyweights, Maybank fell five sen to RM9.40, Public Bank and TNB erased 14 sen each to RM24.80 and RM14.72 respectively, while Petronas Chemicals added one sen to RM9.27 and CIMB rose two sen to RM5.70.
Of actives, Genting Malaysia, which was the most actively traded stock with 276.30 million shares, lost 60 sen to RM3.00, Sapura Energy eased 1.5 sen to 34 sen and MYEG shed three sen to RM1.08.
Top losers, Nestle fell RM3.10 to RM144.50, BAT declined RM1.24 to RM36.60 and Petronas Dagangan dropped 58 sen to RM27.10.