KUALA LUMPUR: Bursa Malaysia closed lower on Friday on continued selling in selected heavyweights, amid lingering concerns on the turbulence across global markets, dealers said.
At 5 pm, the benchmark FTSE Bursa Malaysia KLCI (FBM KLCI) finished Friday trading at 1,669.78, down 6.05 points from Thursday’s close of 1,675.83.
The barometer index moved between 1,668.15 and 1,676.55 throughout the day, after opening 3.25 points weaker at 1,672.58.
Market breadth was however positive with 492 gainers and 349 losers, while 333 counters were unchanged, 694 untraded and 22 others suspended.
Total volume was higher at 2.20 billion shares worth RM1.29 billion versus 1.76 billion shares worth RM1.22 billion.
Bank Islam Malaysia Bhd chief economist Dr Mohd Afzanizam Abdul Rashid said generally businesses had become more risk averse as some countries especially in China and ASEAN had recorded below the 50-point demarcation line in their manufacturing index.
“In fact, the US ISM manufacturing index has shown similar trend whereby it has fallen by 5.2 points to 54.1 in December 2018.
“Naturally, businesses would reduce their capital expenditure and labour hiring as they would become wary on demand prospects,” he said.
Among heavyweights, Maybank fell one sen to RM9.35, Tenaga declined 30 sen to RM13.46, Petronas Chemicals slipped six sen to RM9.26 while Public Bank rose six sen to RM24.66.
Of actives, PUC was flat at 11 sen, Hibiscus Petroleum rose six sen to 89.5 sen, KUB gained two sen to 39.5 sen while Bumi Armada added half-a-sen to 15.5 sen.
Main Market volume rose to 1.52 billion shares worth RM1.15 billion from 1.28 billion shares worth RM1.14 billion yesterday.
Warrants turnover swelled to 440.04 million units valued at RM98.29 million from 272.20 million units valued at RM59.72 million.
Volume on the ACE Market advanced to 214.34 million shares worth RM41.09 million versus 167.09 million shares worth RM26.15 million.
Consumer products and services accounted for 196.68 million shares traded on the Main Market, industrial products and services (338.76 million), construction (148.26 million), technology (125.61 million), SPAC (21.50 million), financial services (23.39 million), property (143.38 million), plantations (127.12 million), REITs (7.02 million), closed/fund (nil), energy (370.69 million), healthcare (22.29 million), telecommunications and media (22.78 million), transportation and logistics (54.24 million), and utilities (23.04 million).