KUALA LUMPUR: – Bursa Malaysia retreated from its recent gains to close lower Tuesday, dragged down by profit taking in tandem with the weaker regional bourses.
At 5 pm, the benchmark FTSE Bursa Malaysia KLCI (FBM KLCI) finished 3.53 points easier to 1,609.21, after moving between 1,603.25 and 1,660.22 throughout the day.
CIMB, which fell 16 sen to RM4.84, dragged down the composite index by 2.348 points.
Etiqa Insurance & Takaful Bhd Head of Research Chris Eng said the local bourse, which bucked the regional trend in early trade, reversed its upside momentum as investors were spooked by weak regional movement.
“There are a lot of uncertainties and global stock markets are very jittery before the US interest rates hike.
“Bursa Malaysia retraced its recent uptrend although the market has factored it (rate hike) in,” he told Bernama.
Regionally, Japan’s Nikkei 225 fell 724.79 points to 18,165.69 points, Hong Kong’s Hang Seng dipped 485.15 points to 21,185.43 points and Shanghai Stock Exchange Composite Index lost 39.36 points to 3,166.62.
On the scoreboard, the FBM Emas Index contracted 17.44 points to 10,958.6, FBMT100 Index erased 15.61 points to 10,718.56 and the FBM Emas Syariah slipped 19.11 points to 11,424.23.
The FBM Ace slid 9.73 points to 4,937.35 but the FBM 70 rose 12.42 points to 11,586.25.
On a sectoral basis, the Finance Index gave up 99.99 points to 14,263.39, Industrial Index inched down 1.24 points to 3,063.82 and the Plantation Index eased 46.01 points to 6,779.06.
Losers outpaced gainers by 400 to 369, while 326 counters remained unchanged, 683 untraded and 19 others suspended.
Total volume fell to 2.06 billion units worth RM2.6 billion from last Friday’s 2.12 billion units valued at RM2.32 billion. –
Among actives, AirAsia gained three sen to 90 sen, SapuraKencana rose seven sen to RM1.79, but KNM eased 1.5 sen to 46.5 sen.
Of the heavyweights, Maybank added one sen to RM8.77, while both Public Bank and TNB were flat at RM18.00 and RM11.18 respectively.
However, Axiata declined three sen to RM6.11 and Maxis slipped one sen to RM6.56.
Main Market volume fell to 1.09 billion units worth RM2.3 billion from 1.24 billion units valued at RM2.1 billion on last Friday.
Turnover on the ACE Market decreased to 216.24 million shares worth RM33.46 million from 284.3 million shares valued at RM436.78 million previously.
Warrants shrank to 751.55 million units worth RM268.53 million from last Friday's 590.28 million units valued at RM173.54 million.
Consumer products accounted for 53.44 million shares traded on the Main Market, industrial products (188.02 million), construction (43.36 million), trade and services (554.96 million), technology (24.93 million), infrastructure (30.41 million), SPAC (9.76 million), finance (77.27 million), hotels (712,100), properties (72.43 million), plantations (23.59 million), mining (6,000), REITs (6.83 million), and closed/fund (108,500). -- BERNAMA