KL Shares Succumb To Selling Pressure To End Lower

By Rosemarie Khoo Mohd Sani

KUALA LUMPUR, Dec 20 (Bernama) -- Shares on Bursa Malaysia ended the week on a lower note as they continued to face selling pressure, tracking losses in regional peers driven by weak global equity markets performance overnight, said an analyst.

At 5 pm, the FTSE Bursa Malaysia KLCI (FBM KLCI) fell 0.54 per cent or 8.68 points to its intraday low of 1,591.41 from Thursday’s close of 1,600.09. 

The benchmark index opened 0.32 of-a-point higher at 1,600.41 and thereafter moved to its intraday high of 1,606.28 before trending downwards to 1,591.41 in late trading. 

The broader market was also negative with decliners beating gainers 541 to 464 while 498 counters were unchanged, 970 untraded and 58 suspended.

Turnover expanded to 3.38 billion units valued at RM3.76 billion versus 3.20 billion units worth RM3.03 billion on Thursday.

Rakuten Trade Sdn Bhd equity research vice-president Thong Pak Leng said investors remained cautious as they are closely watching the release of November’s US personal spending data for further cues on interest rate.

The broader Asian markets ended the week in negative territory, weighed down by hawkish signals from the US Federal Reserve (Fed) as higher US interest rates dampen appetite for riskier assets.

At the same time, China's central bank maintained its loan prime rates, keeping the one-year rate at 3.1 per cent and the five-year rate at 3.6 per cent.

Domestically, he said the FBM KLCI remained in a consolidation phase, with cautious sentiment prevailing amid heightened global volatility.

“We reckon the benchmark index needs to break above the resistance at 1,620, and maintains that level to regain its bullish momentum,” Thong told Bernama.

Among heavyweights, Maybank and IHH Healthcare fell 10.0 sen each to RM9.96 and RM7.03 respectively, CIMB shed 9.0 sen to RM7.95, Petronas Dagangan erased 84 sen to RM19.02, and CelcomDigi dipped 7.0 sen to RM3.54.

For the most active stocks, Zen Tech was flat at 1.0 sen, YTL Corporation added 3.0 sen to RM2.58, YTL Power International rose 6.0 sen to RM4.14, TWL eased half-a-sen to 2.5 sen, JCY climbed 1.0 sen to 52 sen, and Sarawak Cable improved 2.5 sen to 14.0 sen.

On the index board, the FBM Emas Shariah Index shaved 41.95 points to 12,221.81, the FBM Emas Index decreased 54.04 points to 12,222.94, and the FBMT 100 Index declined 56.53 points to 11,908.60.

The FBM 70 Index tumbled 56.60 points to 18,377.47 but the FBM ACE Index rose 12.25 points to 5,268.65.

By sector, the Industrial Products and Services Index fell 0.64 of-a-point to 170.26, the Plantation Index fell 88.84 points to 7,497.27, the Financial Services Index declined 137.18 points to 18,703.35, and the Energy Index slipped 6.95 points to 804.11.

The Main Market volume increased to 1.75 billion units worth RM3.56 billion against Thursday's 1.70 billion units valued at RM2.77 billion.

Warrants turnover narrowed to 922.88 million units valued at RM89.47 million from 1.06 billion units worth RM103.11 million yesterday.

The ACE Market volume surged to 720.12 million units worth RM114.69 million compared with 441.94 million units valued at RM161.02 million million previously.

Consumer products and services counters accounted for 200.71 million shares traded on the Main Market, industrial products and services (284.27 million), construction (100.73 million), technology (250.12 million), SPAC (nil), financial services (124.34 million), property (235.46 million), plantation (31.88 million), REITs (18.09 million), closed/fund (74,900), energy (87.87 million), healthcare (114.36 million), telecommunications and media (33.06 million), transportation and logistics (50.15 million), utilities (222.82 million) and business trusts (399,200).

-- BERNAMA