KUALA LUMPUR: Bursa Malaysia was awash in red ahead of the long weekend, with over 900 counters declining as selling pressure sent the FBM KLCI sharply lower, although last-minute buying helped pare losses.
The 30-stock index fell 15.84 points, or 0.91%, to 1,725.88 after trading within a 29.15-point range, between an intraday high of 1,745.06 and a low of 1,715.91.
The benchmark index fell 0.61% for the week, while eking out a marginal 0.05% gain for the month.
Market breadth turned negative, with losers outnumbering gainers by 917 to 405. With more than twice as many stocks declining as advancing, bearish sentiment prevailed as selling pressure weighed on the broader market.
A dealer said sentiment remained cautious ahead of the long weekend, with investors trimming positions amid a lack of fresh catalysts.
“The market has struggled to sustain gains this week, while the long weekend encouraged investors to reduce exposure. However, late bargain-hunting helped the benchmark recover from its intraday low,” the dealer said.
Trading activity was brisk, with turnover crossing the five-billion-share mark at 5.06 billion shares worth RM6.51bil, the highest since last week when volume reached 4.28 billion shares.
Among the decliners, Nestle slid RM2.90 to RM100.10, Malaysian Pacific Industries
lost RM1.26 to RM41.56, MISC fell 56 sen to RM7.92 and Carlsberg declined 42 sen to RM14.36.
In contrast, United Plantations rose 66 sen to RM31.94, Spritzer added 33 sen to RM3.55, MBM Resources gained 26 sen to RM5.30 and Mega Fortris climbed 19 sen to RM2.30.
Meanwhile, Zetrix AI hit limit down, plunging 30 sen, or 50.42%, to 29.5 sen. It was Bursa Malaysia’s most active counter, with 1.05 billion shares traded.
Bursa Malaysia Securities issued an unusual market activity (UMA) query to the company on Aug 28 over the sharp fall in its share price and heavy trading volume.
Maybank was the second most active counter, rising six sen to RM10.68 on 107.8 million shares traded.
On the forex front, the ringgit strengthened 0.26% against the US dollar to 4.0225 and gained 0.14% against the Singapore dollar to 3.1663.
Around the region, MSCI's Asia ex-Japan index declined 0.02%, with most major regional markets closing higher:
Japan’s Nikkei 225 closed up 0.41% at 66,405.56 ;
Hong Kong’s Hang Seng Index rose 0.07% to 25,584.79;
China’s CSI300 Index declined 0.46% to 4,609.18;
Taiwan’s Taiex rose 0.77% to 46,331.45;
South Korea’s Kospi fell 1.79% to 6,788.88 and;
Singapore’s Straits Times Index declined 0.07% to 5,680.04 points.
