KLCI falls to 4-month low amid heavy selling pressure

KUALA LUMPUR: Weak sentiment continued to weigh on the local bourse as the FBM KLCI fell almost 1% to its lowest level in over four months.

The 30-stock index closed down 14.15 points, or 0.93% at 1,509.71, its lowest since Jan 25. It hit an intraday high of 1,526.83.

The broader market sagged, with decliners overtaking advancers 601 to 315 while 394 counters were unchanged. Turnover stood at 2.88 billion shares valued at RM2.06bil.

Dealers said the market undertone was cautious as investors were taking a risk- averse approach in the absence of domestic catalysts and uncertainties such as rising interest rates and inflation.

All indices on Bursa Malaysia, except the Bursa Malaysia Real Estate Investment Trust (REIT) Index, were down.

Bursa Malaysia Plantation index, one of the worst-hit, fell 146.41 points or 1.87% to 7,811.78 points today.

In terms of fund flows, foreign funds and retailers were net sellers on Wednesday offloading equities worth RM33mil and RM3mil respectively.

Local institutions emerged as net buyers with total purchases valued at RM36mil.

Malaysian Pacific Industries was the top loser on Bursa Malaysia, falling 56 sen to RM32.64, followed by Batu Kawan, which lost 48 sen to RM26.84 and Kuala Lumpur Kepong, which shed 32 sen to RM25.14.

Petronas Dagangan jumped 62 sen to RM21.72, Rapid rose 28 sen to RM12.46 and Petron Malaysia added 18 sen to RM7.34.

Yew Lee, the most active counter on Bursa Malaysia, rose 1.5 sen to 30.5 sen with 252.13 million shares traded.

Meanwhile, the ringgit was quoted at 4.3953, up 0.02% against the US dollar.

US light crude oil fell 66 cents to US$121.45 and Brent lost 53 cents to US$123.05 per barrel.

On the external front, MSCI’s Asia ex-Japan stock index was lower by 0.58%.

Japan’s Nikkei 225 closed up 0.04% at 28,246.53 while South Korea’s Kospi index ended slightly lower by 0.71 points, or 0.03%, at 2,625.44.

Hong Kong’s Hang Seng fell 0.66% to 21,869.05 while China’s CSI300 closed down 1.05% to 4,175.68.