KUALA LUMPUR: Bursa Malaysia ended on easier note today in reaction to Bank Negara Malaysia (BNM)'s decision to cut the overnight policy rate (OPR) by 25 basis points to three per cent, dealers said.
The benchmark FTSE Bursa Malaysia KLCI (FBM KLCI) fell by 5.61 points to close at 1,654.78 from Wednesday's 1,660.39.
The index opened 2.13 points lower at 1,658.26 and moved between 1,652.23 and 1,659.52 throughout the day.
Mercury Securities Sdn Bhd Research Head, Edmund Tham, said the OPR cut had some impact on finance-related stocks.
Among them, Maybank fell 10 sen to RM8.20, CIMB eased 11 sen to RM4.21 and RHB fell one sen to RM5.15. .
Tham said the local property stocks would probably see a marginal rise.
However, the issue would be whether home purchasers would be able to get the financing, he told Bernama.
Asian bourses recorded commendable gains on probable stimulus by the Bank of Japan, Bank of England as well as positive inflow of sentiments following the appointment of Theresa May as UK's new Prime Minister today.
Japan's Nikkei 225 rose 154.46 points to 16,385.89, Hong Kong's Hang Seng advanced 97.63 points to 21,322.37 and South Korea's KOSPI improved 3.22 points to 2,008.77.
Meanwhile, the Singapore Exchange's securities market ceased trading as at 11.38 am Singapore time due to duplicate trade confirmation messages being generated.
The Strait Times Index was last traded at 2,907.06, down 3.59 points.
On the scoreboard, market breadth was slightly negative as decliners marginally overcame advancers by 383 to 382, with 370 counters unchanged, 586 untraded and 45 others were suspended. Volume narrowed to 1.57 billion shares, valued at RM1.89 billion, from 1.7 billion shares, valued at RM2.36 billion, recorded on Wednesday.
The FBM Emas Index trimmed 28.51 points to 11,583.59, FBMT100 Index declined 30.72 points to 11,284.93 and the FBM Emas Shariah Index was down 35.87 points to 12,158.01. The FBM 70 eased 8.4 points to 13,174.4.
The FBM Ace was 80.2 points higher at 5,412.09. Sector-wise, the Industrial Index fell by 16.02 points to 3,129.08, Plantation Index decreased 41.24 points to 7,522.92 and the Finance Index declined 91.56 points to 14,167.52.
Among heavyweights, TNB and Axiata fell two sen each to RM14.30 and RM5.48, respectively. IHH Healthcare and Maxis fell one sen each to RM6.64 and RM5.99, respectively.
Petronas Chemicals was flat at RM6.60.
Of the actives, AirAsia X was half-a-sen higher at 40.5 sen, Hiap Teck Ventures rose 3.5 sen to 25.5 sen, Borneo Oil and UEM Sunrise were flat at 18.5 sen and RM1.09, respectively, while Bumi Armada was half-a-sen lower at 74 sen.
The Main Market turnover improved to 1.15 billion units worth RM1.79 billion from Wednesday’s 1.12 billion units worth RM2.25 billion.
ACE Market volume fell to 201.18 million shares valued at RM53.31 million from 311.13 million shares valued at RM72.56 million yesterday.
Warrants declined to 214.75 million units worth RM37.32 million from 269.13 million units worth RM43.35 million on Wednesday.
Consumer products accounted for 45.84 million shares traded on the Main Market, industrial products (312.54 million), construction (68.89 million), trade and services (467.67 million), technology (42 million), infrastructure (15.96 million), SPAC (2.26 million), finance (63.23 million), hotels (516,500), properties (98.96 million), plantations (15.78 million), mining (nil), REITs (19.23 million) and closed/fund (3,000).