Bursa Malaysia ends mixed, CI down 3.94 points

KUALA LUMPUR: Bursa Malaysia ended mixed on Wednesday after the market swung between mild gains and losses throughout the day, mainly due to selling in property, healthcare and consumer products and services stocks.

At 5 pm, the benchmark FTSE Bursa Malaysia KLCI (FBM KLCI) trimmed 3.94 points to 1,494.03 from 1,497.97 at Tuesday’s close.

The market bellwether opened 2.60 points better at 1,500.57 and moved between 1,491.88 and 1,501.24 throughout the morning session.

The overall broader market was positive with advancers leading decliners 486 to 385, while 450 counters were unchanged, 966 untraded, and 20 others suspended.

Turnover decreased to 3.74 billion units valued at RM2.05 billion from Tuesday’s 4.29 billion units valued at RM2.25 billion.

Some investors were seen taking profit after yesterday steady gains.

Rakuten Trade Sdn Bhd vice-president of equity research Thong Pak Leng said buying enthusiasm waned amid the lack of market moving news domestically.

"The FBM KLCI is likely to hover within a range of 1,490-1,500 for the remainder of the week,” he told Bernama.

On the global front, the oil market was lower but remained steady even as the latest data point to the biggest draw in US stockpiles.

The American Petroleum Institute (API) projected inventory draw for crude oil to be 3.09 million barrels this week, with investors awaiting the US Energy Information Administration (EIA) estimates to be released soon.

The EIA in its December Short-Term Energy Outlook indicates that Brent crude oil price is expected to be at an average of U$70 per barrel in 2022, with production likely to rise more quickly than demand.

Back home, heavyweights Axiata dropped nine sen to RM3.70, Hap Seng Consolidated declined five sen to RM7.50, Hartalega declined 15 sen to RM5.59, and Nestle dipped RM1.50 to RM132.30.

Top Glove lost six sen to RM2.44 and PPB was 16 sen weaker at RM17.06.

Meanwhile, Press Metal and Sime Darby gained five sen each to RM5.45 and RM2.17 respectively.

Of the actives, ATA IMS increased 5.5 sen to 49.5 sen while Fintec Global and MLabs Systems eased half-a-sen to one sen and three sen respectively.

On the index board, the FBM Emas Index eased 8.52 points to 10,900.17, the FBMT 100 Index slid 11.30 points to 10,601.85 and the FBM Emas Shariah Index was 10.75 points lower at 11,764.08.

The FBM 70, however, went up 51.21 points to 14,114.57 and the FBM ACE edged up 23.60 points to 6,289.30.

Sector-wise, the Industrial Products and Services Index perked up 0.05 of-a-point to 193.42, the Financial Services Index recovered 2.44 points to 15,166.39, and the Plantation Index improved 4.19 points to 6,430.09.

The Main Market volume narrowed to 2.02 billion shares valued at RM1.83 billion versus Tuesday’s 2.22 billion shares valued at RM1.98 billion.

Warrants turnover dwindled to 309.01 million units worth RM50.96 million against 365.83 million units worth RM62.64 million.

The volume on the ACE Market slipped to 1.35 billion shares valued at RM173.76 million from 1.47 billion shares valued at RM204.95 million previously.

Consumer products and services counters accounted for 241.92 million shares traded on the Main Market, industrial products and services (909.97 million), construction (77.65 million), technology (213.42 million), SPAC (nil), financial services (65.88 million), property (121.32 million), plantation (16.62 million), REITs (7.60 million), closed/fund (5,000), energy (206.80 million), healthcare (84.47 million), telecommunications and media (28.19 million), transportation and logistics (24.98 million), and utilities (20.84 million). - Bernama