Kuala Lumpur, July 18 – Bursa Malaysia closed broadly lower Monday, the FBM KLCI ceded 12.22 points or -0.84% at 1,437.52 dragged by selected heavyweights. Meanwhile, the Asian equities markets ended in upbeat note as the US dollar index (DXY) has witnessed a steep fall after failing to sustain above the crucial resistance of 109.00. The US Retail Sales which was released last Friday remained upbeat after landing at 1%, higher than the estimates of 0.8% and the prior release of -0.3%. It is noteworthy that the upbeat economic data is driven by soaring oil prices. Whilst the released Consumer Sentiment Index (CSI) by University of Michigan which remained minutely above 51. However, the sentiment data is still near the lowest in the past two years. These contaminated data have caused a significant sell-off in the DXY prices.
** The FTSE BM KLCI opened at 1,420.89. The index fluctuated between 1,416.71 – 1,423.88.
** 517 counters are gainers, 382 counters are unchanged, while 334 counters are losers.
** Total volume of 2,400,791,600 shares changed hands; while Turnover of RM 1,276,143,257
** The Top 5 Gainers: AMLEX (0.67, +0.30) ; HLFG (18.64, +0.24) ; KLK (22.28, +0.18) ; AHEALTH (2.83, +0.13) ; HLBANK (20.48, +0.12)
** The Top 5 Losers: NESTLE (132.70, -1.90) ; MPI (27.40, -0.54) ; PPB (15.54, -0.32) ; AEONCR (13.62, -0.28) ; TEXCHEM (2.59, -0.27)
** The Top 5 Most Active Stocks: MMAG (0.055, +0.005) ; SAPNRG (0.045, +0.005) ; HSI-HB5 (0.145, -0.155) ; TOPGLOV (1.04, +0.045) ; BORNOIL (0.025, UNCHANGED)
** Singapore’s Straits Times Index (STI) advanced 20.09 points or +0.65% to 3,119.24 ; Hong Kong’s HSI jumped 548.46 points or +2.70% at 20,846.18 ; Korea’s Kospi Index rose 44.27 points or +1.90% at 2,375.25 ; Shanghai’s SSE Index up 50.04 points or +1.55% at 3,278.10 ; Australia’s All Ordinaries index rose 90.00 points or 1.32% at 6,888.00.