KUALA LUMPUR: Bursa Malaysia and most of its Asian peers were still in the red at Friday’s close amid the US stock market uncertainty, signalling the health of its economy, dealers said.
This has caused the US Federal Reserve to pause its interest rate talk, while keeping an eye open on the November non-farm payrolls data to provide a better view of the overall market strength.
At 5 pm, the FTSE Bursa Malaysia KLCI (FBM KLCI) slipped 2.80 points to 1,680.54 after opening 1.97 points easier at 1,681.37.
The index moved within a narrow range of between 1,676.60 and 1,684.36 throughout the day.
On the broader market, losers trumped gainers 427 to 292, while 402 counters were unchanged, 748 untraded and 24 others suspended.
Volume narrowed to 1.91 billion units valued at RM1.51 billion from 1.96 billion units worth RM1.86 billion at Thursday’s close.
A dealer said the other external factors that could also weigh on the barometer index included the decision on production levels to be made at the Organisation of the Petroleum Exporting Countries (OPEC) meeting.
“The discussion is still ongoing in Vienna and OPEC has yet to agree on the output deal. As Malaysia is one of the oil exporting countries, whatever decision concluded later today by OPEC members will effect our market,” he said.
Among heavyweights, Maybank and CIMB fell two sen each to RM9.42 and RM5.78, respectively, while Public Bank dropped eight sen to RM24.80 and Tenaga was six sen weaker at RM13.70.
Of actives, Bumi Armada and Yong Tai gained half-a-sen each to 16.5 sen and 37.5 sen, respectively, MyEG shed 10 sen to RM1.14 and Sapura Energy was half-a-sen weaker at 35 sen.
The FBM Emas Shariah Index slipped 7.03 points to 11,608.23, the FBM Ace Index was 45.41 points weaker at 4,684.39, but the FBM 70 improved 58.96 points to 13,522.99.
The FBM Emas Index depreciated 5.76 points to 11,597.54 and the FBMT 100 Index edged down 3.00 points to 11,479.92.
Sector-wise, the Plantation Index eased 2.67 points to 6,835.11, the Industrial Products and Services Index was 0.36 of-a-point easier at 169.04 and the Financial Services Index lost 16.63 points to 17,435.04.