KUALA LUMPUR: Bursa Malaysia finished lower on Tuesday with almost 700 counters ending in the red after subdued economic data from China dented market sentiment.
The optimism quickly dwindled after a private-sector survey showed on Tuesday that China's services activity expanded at the slowest pace in eight months in August as weak demand continued to dog the world's second-largest economy, Reuters reported.
China’s Caixin/S&P Global services purchasing managers' index (PMI) dropped to 51.8 in August from 54.1 in July.
At 5 pm, the FBM KLCI was down 7.89 points, or 0.54% to 1,454.83.
Turnover was 4.1 billion shares valued at RM2.4bil. There were 309 gainers, 689 losers and 403 stocks unchanged.
According to data on Bursa Malaysia, foreign investors disposed of RM107mil of local equities on Monday.
Local institutions and retailers bought RM92mil and RM15mil worth of equities respectively yesterday.
Among the losers on Bursa Malaysia, Allianz slid 24 sen to RM16, Heineken erased 24 sen to RM23.56, Hextar Technologies lost 20 sen to RM25 and Malaysian Pacific Industries
declined 18 sen to RM28.40.
Among the gainers, Nestle jumped 70 sen to RM129.90, Dutch Lady added 20 sen to RM22.50, AirAsia X rose 16 sen to RM2.41 and Hong Leong Financial Group gained 14 sen to RM18.24.
Around the region, MSCI's broadest index of Asia-Pacific ex-Japan dropped 1.03%.
Japan’s Nikkei 225 closed 0.3% higher at 33,036.76 while South Korea’s Kospi fell 0.9%, at 2,582.18.
Hong Kong’s Hang Seng index was down 2.06% at 18,456.91.
CSI300 index edged down 0.74% to 3,820.32, while the Shanghai Composite Index fell 0.71% at 3,154.37 points.
Already a subscriber? Log in
Get 20% OFF The Star Digital Access
Cancel anytime. Ad-free. Unlimited access with perks.
