Bursa ends lower, in line with regional peers

Growing worries of a possible global banking crisis sparks selldown.

KUALA LUMPUR: Bursa Malaysia retreated from yesterday’s gains to end lower today, in tandem with the weaker regional market performance following the large scale selldown of US and European equities overnight on fears of a global banking crisis, said an analyst.

At 5pm, the benchmark FTSE Bursa Malaysia KLCI (FBM KLCI) fell 12.33 points, or 0.88%, to 1,391.60 from Wednesday’s close of 1,403.93.

The key index opened 3.11 points lower at 1,400.82 and moved between 1,391.04 and 1,403.93 throughout the day.

Market breadth was negative with decliners thumping gainers 719 to 238 while 341 counters were unchanged, 969 untraded and 21 others suspended.

Turnover amounted to 3.52 billion units worth RM2.22 billion.

Rakuten Trade Sdn Bhd vice-president of equity research Thong Pak Leng said Wall Street fell overnight as Credit Suisse Group AG shares sank, reigniting worries about a possible global banking crisis.

Investors were also uncertain about the US Federal Reserve’s (Fed) action with regard to interest rates, he added.

“As for the local bourse, we believe that the selloff was unwarranted as the Malaysian banking system is highly regulated and has well-contained asset quality risks compared to the US.

“However, due to the uncertain global and regional conditions, we expect the short-term market sentiment to remain nervous,” he told Bernama.

Thong is anticipating that the FBM KLCI would trend between 1,390 and 1,400 points towards the weekend.

Among the heavyweight stocks, Maybank lost 9 sen to RM8.26, Public Bank dropped 2 sen to RM3.93 and Petronas Chemicals inched down 1 sen to RM6.99. CIMB shed 8 sen to RM5.15 and TNB weakened 7 sen to RM9.35.

Among the actives, Top Glove rallied 13.5 sen to 83.5 sen, Zen Tech International edged up half-a-sen to 2 sen and Careplus climbed 2.5 sen to 27 sen.

Hartalega surged 21 sen to RM1.78 and Sapura Energy trimmed half-a-sen to 4.5 sen.

On the index board, the FBM Emas Index gave up 80.20 points to 10,181.17, the FBMT 100 Index dropped 73.42 points to 9,878.14 and the FBM ACE Index lost 85.58 points to 5,190.77.

The FBM Emas Shariah Index went down 78.09 points to 10,481.27 and the FBM 70 Index contracted 37.51 points to 13,131.53.

Sector-wise, the financial services index dropped 128.56 points to 15,353.89, the energy index lost 24.63 points to 813.37 and the plantation index decreased 40.93 points to 6,681.38.

The industrial products and services index eased 1.88 points to 167.68.

The Main Market volume widened to 2.15 billion shares worth RM1.85 billion from Wednesday’s 2.04 billion shares worth RM1.63 billion.

Warrant turnover expanded to 511.37 million units worth RM76.38 million from 373.03 million units worth RM59.59 million previously.

The ACE Market volume rose to 865.9 million shares worth RM292.68 million from 718.55 million shares worth RM646.99 million yesterday.

Consumer products and services counters accounted for 316.88 million shares traded on the Main Market, industrial products and services (470.98 million); construction (47.72 million); technology (188.82 million); SPAC (nil), financial services (74.17 million); property (86.38 million); plantation (25.92 million); REITs (4.47 million), closed/fund (2,000); energy (400.54 million); healthcare (436.63 million); telecommunications and media (35.06 million); transportation and logistics (33.91 million); and utilities (23.64 million).