Bursa Malaysia closed in the red today amid heavy profit-taking in plantation and energy stocks.
At 5pm, the FTSE Bursa Malaysia KLCI (FBM KLCI) was down 19.96 points or 1.39% at 1,420.85 from yesterday's close of 1,440.81, its lowest level since May 19, 2020.
The benchmark opened 1.76 points higher at 1,442.57 and traded between 1,419.50 and 1,448.09 throughout the day.
Amid the broad sell-off, overall market breadth was negative as losers led by 717 to 208 gainers, while 388 stocks were unchanged, 910 were untraded and 7 others were suspended.
Total turnover rose to 2.16 billion units worth RM1.63 billion from 1.99 billion units worth RM1.21 billion yesterday.
Thong Pak Leng, vice president of equity research at Rakuten Trade Sdn Bhd, expects investor sentiment to remain jittery given heightened global volatility, although dips may start to pick up.
“We expectthe FBM KLCIto remain in a consolidation pattern and hover in the 1,420-1,440 range for the rest of the week. Technically, we see immediate support at 1,400 and resistance at 1,460,” he told Malaysiakini New agency.
The weakness on the local bourse was also in line with most regional markets, dragged down by a slump in commodity prices that led to a heavy sell-off in energy and materials stocks.
"The surge in Covid-19 infections in China also hurt sentiment as it reignited fears of a potential lockdown," Thong said.
Regionally, Singapore's Straits Times index fell 0.07% to 3,102.04, Japan's Nikkei 225 lost 1.20% to 26,107.65 and Hong Kong's Hang Seng lost 1.22% to 21,586.66.
On the local bourse, heavyweight Maybank gained one sen to RM8.62, CIMB gained five sen to RM5.10, Petronas Gas gained eight sen to RM16.40, while Public Bank and IHH Healthcare each lost two sen sen to RM4.39 and RM6.At RM38, Petronas Chemicals cut 47 sen to RM8.65 and Petronas down 8 sen to RM7.94.
Among active stocks, Jade Marvel rose 1 sen to 91.5 sen, Sapura Energy and Wing Tai were unchanged at 4.5 sen and 8.5 sen, Velesto fell 1 sen to 9 sen, Seremban Oil fell 7.5 sen to 92.5 sen and Top Glove fell half a sen to 94 sen fairy.
In the index sector, the FTSE Emas fell 138.96 points to 10,104.55, the FTSE Emas Shariah fell 217.42 points to 10,148.71, the FTSE 70 fell 134.29 points to 12,173.27, the FTSE ACE fell 20.25 points to 4,626.72, while the FTSE 100 fell 1315.66.Points to 9,862.44.
In terms of sectors, the financial services index fell 18.42 points to 16,065.76, the industrial goods and services index fell 5.47 points to 175.48 and the plantation index fell 343.59 points to 6,471.79.
Mainboard trading volume expanded to 1.42 billion shares worth RM1.47 billion, compared to yesterday's 1.07 billion shares worth RM984.74 million.
Warrant turnover fell to 431.29 million units worth RM77.84 million from 452.94 million units worth RM94 million yesterday.
ACE Market volume decreased to 304.42 million shares valued at RM82.19 million from 466.666 million shares valued at RM126.58 million previously.
Consumer goods and services counter traded 159.39 million shares on the main board, industrial products and services (335.02 million), construction (55.58 million), technology (134.94 million), SPAC (none), financial services (57.1 million), real estate (140.08 million) , plantations (69.81 million), REITs (3.27 million), closed/funded (0), energy (343.86 million), healthcare (65.77 million), telecommunications and media (30.9 million), transportation and logistics (16.41 million) and utilities (8.52 million).
