Bursa Malaysia ended marginally lower on Monday amid continuous mild profit-taking in selected heavyweights and bullish sentiment on the regional market, dealers said.
At 5pm, the FTSE Bursa Malaysia KLCI (FBM KLCI) eased 0.71 of a point to end at 1,462.72 from 1,463.43 at Friday’s (Sept 1) close.
The barometer index opened 0.64 of a point firmer at 1,464.07 and moved between 1,460.84 and 1,465.93 during the day.
On the broader market, decliners outpaced gainers 526 to 489, with 404 counters unchanged, 896 untraded and 31 others suspended.
Turnover decreased to 4.01 billion units worth RM2.37 billion against Friday’s 4.65 billion units worth RM3.08 billion.
Rakuten Trade Sdn Bhd equity research vice-president Thong Pak Leng said the KLCI ended in negative territory due to profit-taking activities during the final minutes of trading.
“Meanwhile, major regional indices moved in an upward direction, riding the wave of optimism surrounding China. All eyes are on Beijing for further steps to boost economic growth, especially any measures targeted at shoring up the property market.
“At the same time, investors were also anticipating China’s trade data for the week, following last week’s release of purchasing managers’ index data, which indicated some improvement in the world’s second-largest economy,” he said.
On the domestic front, despite the profit-takings, Thong said the market undertone is expected to remain strong given the support from local institutions, foreign buying and increasing retail participation.
“Hence, we believe that the index will show a more positive performance and hover between the 1,455 and 1,475 range for the week. Technical point of view, we see the immediate resistance at 1,490 while support at 1,440,” he said.
Among the heavyweights, Maybank Bhd and Petronas Chemicals Group Bhd were flat at RM9.15 and RM7.12, respectively, Public Bank Bhd gained four sen to RM4.28, while CIMB Group Goldings Bhd declined three sen to RM5.71 and Tenaga Nasional Bhd slipped two sen to RM9.90.
Of the actives, MRCB shed one sen to 48.5 sen, Dagang Nexchange Bhd eased half a sen to 46 sen, Velesto Energy Bhd added a sen to 25 sen and Bumi Armada Bhd improved a sen to 54 sen.
On the index board, the FBM Emas Index declined 13.77 points to 10,802.87, the FBMT100 Index decreased 14.5 points to 10,468.78, the FBM Emas Shariah Index fell 19.78 points to 10,978.1, the FBM 70 Index slipped 59.72 points to 14,274.25, while the FBM ACE Index climbed 14.09 points to 5,242.18.
Sector-wise, the Financial Services Index advanced 16.67 points to 16,488.24, the Industrial Products and Services Index was 1.23 points higher at 173.77, the Energy Index added 4.89 points to 861.03, and the Plantation Index firmed 8.92 points to 6,946.62.
The Main Market volume slipped to 2.95 billion units worth RM2.11 billion from 3.72 billion units worth RM2.84 billion on Friday.
Warrant turnover widened to 440.93 million units valued at RM61.03 million against 233.28 million units valued at RM28.33 million previously.
The ACE Market volume narrowed to 612.71 million shares worth RM202.28 million from 703.59 million shares worth RM212.68 million on Friday.
Consumer products and services counters accounted for 421.64 million shares traded on the Main Market, industrial products and services (709.25 million); construction (245.12 million); technology (253.64 million); SPAC (nil); financial services (101.61 million); property (459.74 million); plantation (42.32 million); REITs (11.10 million), closed/fund (28,200); energy (465.17 million); healthcare (62.11 million); telecommunications and media (38.33 million); transportation and logistics (59.42 million); and utilities (80.02 million).
