BURSA MALAYSIA ENDS ON WEAKER NOTE IN SYNC WITH REGIONAL PEERS

By Abdul Hamid A Rahman

KUALA LUMPUR, July 24 (Bernama) -- Bursa Malaysia closed on a weaker note today in tandem with the downbeat regional market performance as investors took profits amid the global sell-off, said Rakuten Trade Sdn Bhd.

At 5 pm, the FTSE Bursa Malaysia KLCI (FBM KLCI) shaved off 8.54 points, or 0.52 per cent, to 1,621.14 from Tuesday's close of 1,629.68.

The key index opened 1.63 points higher at 1,631.31, to mark its intraday high and hit a low of 1,619.71 before the midday session.

On the broader market, losers surpassed gainers 773 to 341, with 487 counters unchanged, 870 untraded, and six others suspended.

Turnover slid to 4.39 billion units worth RM2.80 billion from Tuesday's 5.11 billion units worth RM3.59 billion.

Rakuten Trade Sdn Bhd equity research vice-president Thong Pak Leng said that most key regional indices were also in negative territory following a lacklustre performance on Wall Street overnight, due to weak earnings from the United States technology giants Tesla and Alphabet,” he told Bernama.

Rakuten Trade is cautiously maintaining an optimistic outlook for the local market despite the escalating volatility in global equities.

"We believe investor sentiment on the local market will remain steady, given the strong support from foreign buying, while the consistently high daily trading volume suggests continued interest in Malaysian equities.

"Consequently, we maintain our weekly FBM KLCI target at between 1,610 and 1,640 for the rest of the week," he added.

Among the heavyweights, Tenaga Nasional fell 4.0 sen to RM14.40, Public Bank declined 2.0 sen to RM4.18, and IHH Healthcare decreased 6.0 sen to RM6.25.

Maybank added 2.0 sen to RM10.12, while CIMB Group remained unchanged at RM7.20. 

As for the actives, SC Estate Builder gained 1.0 sen to 2.0 sen, MQ Technology added half-a-sen to 1.5 sen, and MY E.G. Services rose 2.5 sen to RM1.01, while Ekovest Bhd was flat at 49 sen, and OCR Group was 2.0 sen lower at 10.5 sen.

On the index board, the FBM Emas Index decreased 76.72 points to 12,547.82, the FBM 100 Index fell 74.56 points to 12,125.66, the FBM Emas Shariah Index dropped 97.73 points to 12,876.88, the FBM 70 Index declined 154.07 points to 18,694.39 and the FBM ACE Index was down 55.20 points to 5,856.86.

Sector-wise, the Financial Services Index decreased by 23.84 points to 17,950.30, the Plantation Index fell 25.28 points to 7,172.64, the Industrial Products and Services Index dipped 3.14 points to 193.31, while the Energy Index shed 7.23 points to 966.03.

The Main Market volume slipped to 2.28 billion units valued at RM2.42 billion from 2.97 billion units valued at RM3.18 billion on Tuesday.

Warrants turnover bounced to 1.27 billion units worth RM161.45 million from 1.17 billion units worth RM156.79 million yesterday.

The ACE Market volume dwindled to 840.80 million shares valued at RM221.89 million from 983.16 million shares valued at RM258.99 million previously.  

Consumer products and services counters accounted for 334.06 million shares traded on the Main Market, industrial products and services (493.46 million), construction (374.24 million), technology (303.35 million), SPAC (nil), financial services (73.52 million), property (197.34 million), plantation (25.68 million), REITs (14.25 million), closed/fund (50,600), energy (148.37 million), healthcare (66.75 million), telecommunications and media (38.42 million), transportation and logistics (160.65 million), utilities (52.70 million), and business trusts (352,400).

-- BERNAMA