Bursa ends lower, ringgit extends losses against US dollar

KUALA LUMPUR – The Kuala Lumpur stock market gave up early gains to close 1.22% lower today, mirroring the fall in most regional bourses, dealers said.

At 5pm, the benchmark FBM KLCI dipped 19.45 points to 1,575.84 from 1,595.29 at yesterday’s close.

The index opened 4.02 points higher at 1,599.31, its intraday high, and hit its lowest level of 1,575.84 at closing.

On the broader market, losers thumped gainers 823 to 448, while 392 counters were unchanged, 514 untraded and 10 others suspended.

Total volume was higher at 14.49 billion units worth RM6.73 billion compared with 10.13 billion units worth RM5.22 billion yesterday.

Bank Islam Malaysia Bhd economist Adam Mohamed Rahim said other regional peers were also in the red as jitters over the spread of Covid-19 variants appeared to have slightly dampened sentiment on anticipated economic recovery.

“With that, all banking counters under the FBM KLCI recorded losses, with CIMB recording the largest loss of 3.1% to RM4.13.

“As such, the Bursa Malaysia Financial Services Index was the biggest loser among sectoral indices after dropping by 1.9%. However, on the bright side, the rally in oil prices led the oil and gas counters to be actively traded including Velesto and Sapura Energy, which were in the top five of the most actively traded stocks,” he told Bernama today.

Among the heavyweights, Maybank eased 16 sen to RM7.93, Public Bank shed 8 sen to RM4.11, PChem declined 6 sen to RM7.47, Tenaga was down 1 sen to RM9.85, and Top Glove trimmed 12 sen to RM6.07.

Of the actives, Dagang NeXchange soared 22 sen to 77 sen, Techna-X rose 2.5 sen to 18.5 sen, Velesto Energy added 1.5 sen to 18 sen, Sapura Energy rose half-a-sen to 15.5 sen, and Ta Win gained 6.5 sen to 28.5 sen. 

On the index board, the FBM Emas Index slid 113.39 points to 11,569.96, the FBMT 100 Index decreased 121.7 points to 11,247.71, and the FBM Emas Shariah Index was 61.93 points lower at 13,056.32.

The FBM 70 fell 99.05 points to 15,231.02 while the FBM ACE dipped 178.6 points to 11,087.95.

Separately, the ringgit extended yesterday’s losses to end lower against the US dollar today, driven by continued profit-taking after recent gains despite the bullish outlook on global oil prices, dealers said.

At the close, the local currency fell to 4.0400/0440 against the US dollar from yesterday’s close of 4.0370/0420. – Bernama, February 18, 2021