During the week ended Oct 4, the benchmark Kuala Lumpur stock exchange index, FBM KLCI, fell 30.12 points, or 1.81%, to 1,629.97 from the 1,660.09 closing of the previous week.
This level is still comfortably above the lowest year-to-date close of 1536.48 recorded on Aug 5, and above the 5-year low of near-1220 in Mar 2020.
Sector wise, the Energy Index clearly won big for the week ended Oct 4, rising 35.93 points, or 4.20%, to settle at 892.68. On Friday, the sector index at one point climbed to the height of 896.78, a level very close to the 30-day high of 897.72 recorded on Sep 4.
Utilities, a sector closely linked to energy, moved downward approximately 0.5% to 1727.45 from 1736.10, the settlement of the previous Friday, to record a 30-day low closing. During the week, the Utilities Index hit the weekly high of 1762.64 on Oct 1 before sloping down.
During the week, the Construction Index recorded considerable index loss of 10.08 points, or 3.51%, to close at 276.75. The Property Index also shed 1.60% to close at 1063.38.
Telecommunications and Media Index slipped 15.71 points, or 2.78%, to end the week at 548.65. On Friday, the index dropped 1.75% as the heavyweight telecommunications counters, Maxis and CelcomDigi, lost 5.20% and 2.21% to settle at RM3.65 and RM3.62, respectively.
Meanwhile, the Plantation Index, largely an indicator for Crude Palm Oil (CPO), trimmed 7.45 points, or 0.1%, off 7193.23 to settle at 7185.78, Friday-to-Friday. It is noted that on Tuesday, the Plantation Index at one point bottomed at 7121.00, an intraday low, the week’s lowest point, and also a 30-day low.
On Oct 3, the price for CPO was quoted at RM4244.50/tonne, a 90-day high but still below the highest price level in 2024 which is RM4519.50/tonne registered in April. (Source: mpob.gov.my)
The Financial Services Index slid 275.65 points, or 1.42%, to 19,190.68 from previous week’s settlement of 19,466.33, despite reports of foreign fund inflow into the large-cap banks.
Coming to individual counter, Maybank shares saw a sharp decline on Sep 30, the last trading day of the preceding week, to close at RM10.50 from opening price RM10.66. The stock moved up on Oct 3 to close at RM10.54, owing to traders building up their long positions, before receding to RM10.50 at the end of the week.
Likewise, on Monday, Hong Leong Bank saw a huge dip of 30 sen from the opening of RM21.86 to the settlement of RM21.56. The largely downward trend during mid-week came to a halt on Thursday when the share closed at RM21.30, subsequently settled at RM21.28 the following day, after losing just 2 sen.
Across the Bursa index board, FBM Emas Index dipped 1.43% to 12,209.49 and FBM Emas Shariah Index lost 1.61% to 12,114.21; FBM Top 100 Index fell 1.55% to 11,900.57; FBM Mid 70 Index shed 0.98% to 17,268.40; and FBM ACE Index gave up 0.94% to settle at 5,109.52 at the end of the trading week.
In terms of the overall volume and share valuation, the Main Market’s volume decreased nearly 4% to 8.30 billion shares worth RM12.11 billion, from 8.64 billion shares worth RM13.76 billion in the previous week.
The ACE Market’s volume improved close to 1% to 2.10 billion shares worth RM491.78 million from 2.08 billion shares worth RM567.43 million in the previous week.
