KUALA LUMPUR, Aug 25 — Share prices on Bursa Malaysia ended the day lower with the selling of select heavyweights such as Sime Darby and British American Tobacco, dealers said.
However, the losses were capped by gains in other blue-chip stocks like Bumiputera-Commerce and Tenaga Nasional, they said.
At close, the FTSE Bursa Malaysia Kuala Lumpur Composite Index (FBM KLCI) fell 3.4 points or 0.28 per cent to end at 1,171.09, after opening unchanged at 1,174.49 in the morning.
OSK’s head of research Chris Eng said the market is expected to remain rangebound for the next few months within the range of 1,180 to 1,200 points.
“We don’t think the market will drop much. Although the market is slightly overvalued, most investors are not willing to sell their stocks and they are also not into buying at the moment either,” he said.
Eng said investors may actually be looking at small caps in segments like oil and gas, and rubber rather than trade the big caps.
“In general, the local market will still depend on the US and China markets. China may continue to be rangebound while the United States may see some upward movement although limited,” he said.
At 5pm, the Finance Index was up 1.25 points at 9,486.35 while the Plantation Index declined 9.08 points to 5,836.73 and the Industrial Index decreased 15.08 points to 2,575.54.
The FBM Emas Index dropped 27.75 points to 7,904.47, the FBM Top 100 went down 23.94 points to 7,864.34 and the FBM ACE Index lost 12.71 points to end at 4,170.14.
Losers led gainers 356 to 273 while 233 counters closed unchanged, 383 untraded and none suspended.
Turnover increased to 709.248 million shares worth RM985.757 million from yesterday’s 694.863 million shares worth RM1.11 billion.
Of the volume leaders, KTB gained half sen to 26.5 sen while MSports and KNM both remained flat at 64.5 sen and 76 sen respectively, and TM fell two sen to RM3.06.
The top gainers included Huatlai which rose 30 sen to 75 sen, Nestle which went up 22 sen to RM33.44 and Chuan which advanced 18 sen to 72 sen.
The top losers included British American Tobacco which fell 68 sen to RM45.02, Cepco which dropped 53 sen to RM2.75 and Tanjong which lost 50 sen to RM14.78.
Among the heavyweights, Sime Darby fell three sen to RM8.22 while Maybank was flat at RM6.52, Bumiputera-Commerce rose two sen to RM10.36 and Tenaga Nasional increased one sen to RM8.01.
Others included IOI Corp and Axiata which declined one sen each to RM5.10 and RM3.09 respectively and RHB Cap which went up four sen to RM4.64.
Volume on the Main Market was higher at 650.807 million shares worth RM973.945 million compared to yesterday’s 631.733 million shares worth RM1.097 billion.
The ACE market volume, however, dropped to 29.934 million shares valued at RM5.924 million from 38.512 million shares valued at RM6.863 million previously.
Warrants rose to 25.842 million units worth RM4.843 million from 21.987 million units worth RM4.755 million yesterday.
Consumer products accounted for 82.098 million shares traded on the Main Market, industrial products 148.527 million, construction 35.683 million, trade/services 228.620 million, technology 23.916 million, infrastructure 12.943 million, finance 54.549 million, hotels 630,300, properties 50.425 million, plantations 11.611 million, mining nil, REITs 1.769 million, and closed/fund 32,000. — Bernama
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