KUALA LUMPUR, Malaysia (June 23): The benchmark index of Bursa Malaysia was lower in early trade today, retreating from yesterday’s modest gains, owing to selling among the heavyweights, led by Top Glove Corp Bhd. At 9:15 a.m., the benchmark FBM KLCI had dropped 3.49 points to 1,570.53, down from 1,574.02 yesterday.
At 1,571.76, the index opened 2.26 points lower.
Losers outnumbered gainers 241 to 186 on the broader market, with 333 counters unchanged, 1,445 untraded, and 17 others suspended.
599.97 million items worth RM298.18 million were sold.
With 2.44 million shares traded, Top Glove drove the composite index down by 3.635 points after losing six sen or 1.29 percent to RM4.41.
The drop in new daily COVID-19 cases in the country, where the daily total remained below 5,000 for two days in a row, a trader claimed, dampened interest in rubber glove stockpiles.
Tan Sri Dr Noor Hisham Abdullah, director-general of the Health Ministry, stated on Twitter yesterday that 4,743 instances were reported on Tuesday, up 232 cases from the previous day.
Meanwhile, Malacca Securities Sdn Bhd claimed that as stock markets in the United States continue to rise and immunisation rates in Malaysia improve, buying demand in local stocks may increase.
“Following the Celcom-Digi merger announcement, investors may see some follow-through purchasing interest in the telecommunication and media shares.”
Furthermore, the progressive increase in daily vaccine doses supplied may shed light on recovery theme areas such as consumer, transportation, and logistics,” it said in a note released today.
PetChem rose two sen to RM8.00, while Maybank, Public Bank, Tenaga, and IHH were unchanged at RM8.20, RM4.20, RM10.04, and RM5.75, respectively.
Serba Dinamik fell 1.5 sen to 61 sen, Saudee gained two sen to 17 sen, Sasbadi gained 1.5 sen to 27 sen, while Tanco, Sanichi, and MMAG remained unchanged at 15 sen, eight sen, and sixteen sen, respectively.
Pekat Group Bhd, a newcomer to the ACE Market, got off to a solid start, with 30.58 million shares traded at a premium of 53 sen to 85 sen above its initial public offering price of 32 sen.
The FBM Emas Index was down 16.03 points to 11,458.59, the FBMT 100 Index was down 17.0 points to 11,151.0, the FBM ACE was down 3.24 points to 7,619.25, and the FBM Emas Shariah Index was down 28.71 points to 12,567.96 on the index board.
In the meantime, the FBM 70 index increased 7.92 points to 14,873.72.
The Financial Services Index increased by 1.45 points to 15,289.24, the Industrial Products and Services Index increased by 0.12 point to 189.57, and the Plantation Index increased by 0.15 point to 6,538.33. Continue reading
