KUALA LUMPUR: Bursa Malaysia ended at an intraday low yesterday, weighed down by persistent selling in selected heavyweights, led by the utilities, telecommunications and media, as well as financial services sectors.
At 5pm, the FBM KLCI fell 10.81 points, or 0.7%, to 1,536.46, from last Friday’s close of 1,547.27.
Tenaga Nasional Bhd
slid 20 sen to RM13.54, Maxis Bhd slid 10 sen to RM3.27 and Malayan Banking Bhd dipped six sen to RM10.58.
These counters dragged the composite index down by a combined 4.53 points.
On the broader market, decliners thumped advancers 730 to 253, while 425 counters were unchanged, 974 untraded and 15 suspended.
Turnover increased to 3.1 billion units worth RM2.4bil, compared to 2.45 billion units worth RM2.43bil last Friday.
Rakuten Trade Sdn Bhd vice-president of equity research Thong Pak Leng said the key index continued to trend lower amid cautious sentiment and a lack of fresh catalysts.
The key regional indices were also mostly in negative territory, as investor sentiment remained unsettled, driven by the United States’ frequent trade policy changes, which fuelled uncertainty.
“Additionally, (the) refusal to rule out a US recession this year added to market jitters,” he told Bernama.
Back home, he said the recent sell-off caused the benchmark index’s price-to-earnings ratio to fall to 13.5 times, presenting an opportunity to accumulate blue-chip stocks or those with strong fundamentals to safeguard investors’ portfolios.
“We expect bargain hunting to emerge and anticipate the FBM KLCI to trend within the range of 1,530-1,550 for the week,” he added.
