KUALA LUMPUR: Bursa Malaysia retreated from its gains last week to close lower today, due to profit-taking activities amid mixed performance by regional markets, a dealer said.
Rakuten Trade Sdn Bhd equity research vice-president Thong Pak Leng said key regional indices were mixed as investors were cautious ahead of inflation data from across the region this week.
Meanwhile, he said investors’ sentiment was negatively affected by several factors such as Wall Street’s losses over the weekend, concerns over China’s property sector, potential US government shutdown and the continued strike by American automotive workers.
“As for the local bourse, we viewed today’s sell-down as a good opportunity to bargain hunt stocks at a lower level as valuations of local equities remain attractive, particularly the blue chips.
“At the same time, Brent crude oil remains elevated at US$93.96 (RM440.2) per barrel, and we reckon that this is a buying opportunity for local oil and gas stocks,” he told Bernama.
As such, Thong expects the key index to trend within the range of 1,440-1,460 for the week, with immediate support at 1,440 and resistance at 1,460.
At 5pm, the FTSE Bursa Malaysia KLCI (FBM KLCI) fell 6.78 points to 1,443.45 from Friday’s close of 1,450.23.
The index opened 0.40 of-a-point easier at 1,449.83 and moved between 1,441.17 and 1,450.32 throughout the day.
Market breadth was negative as decliners beat gainers 555 to 392, while 448 counters were unchanged, 1,004 untraded and 49 others suspended.
Turnover was slightly higher at 3.33 billion units worth RM2.04 billion from 3.13 billion units worth RM2.08 billion last week.
At the close, Bursa heavyweights Maybank was down by one sen to RM8.87, both Public and Tenaga Nasional were two sen lower at RM4.18 and RM10.14, respectively, CIMB fell five sen to RM5.54 and Petronas Chemicals slid three sen to RM7.32.
Of the actives, Icon slipped 1.5 sen to 11.5 sen and UEM Sunrise lost 3.5 sen to 87.5 sen, while Widad added 0.5 sen to 50.5 sen.
Both Ekovest and MRCB were flat at 59 sen and 48 sen, respectively.
On the index board, the FBM Emas Index contracted 42.03 points to 10,704.87, the FBMT 100 Index was 42.72 points weaker at 10,365.47, the FBM 70 Index inched down 32.88 points to 14,284.2, the FBM Emas Shariah Index gave up 44.54 points to 10,963.29 and the FBM ACE Index dropped 21.18 points to 5,187.88.
Sector-wise, the plantation index reduced by 22.02 points to 6,905.2, the energy index shed 10.77 points to 896.15, the industrial products and services index erased 0.65 of-a-point to 174.18 and the financial services index slid 37.97 points to 16,182.65.
Main Market volume rose to 2.22 billion units worth RM1.77 billion from 2.08 billion units worth RM1.82 billion on Friday.
Warrants turnover narrowed to 445.11 million units valued at RM47.57 million against 464.54 million units valued at RM69.35 million previously.
The ACE Market volume increased to 662.94 million shares worth RM219.85 million from 585.5 million shares worth RM185.53 million previously.
Consumer products and services counters accounted for 265.65 million shares traded on the Main Market, industrial products and services (473.56 million); construction (214.44 million); technology (160.48 million); SPAC (nil); financial services (69.95 million); property (546.66 million); plantation (30.82 million); REITs (8.38 million), closed/fund (17,900); energy (280.78 million); healthcare (58.2 million); telecommunications and media (29.19 million); transportation and logistics (41.59 million) and utilities (41.12 million).