KUALA LUMPUR – Bursa Malaysia ended sharply lower today with the key index declining 2.22%, weighed mainly by glove stocks and weak sentiment in the local market, but managed to recoup some losses to close off its intraday low.
At 5pm, the benchmark FTSE Bursa Malaysia KLCI fell 35.68 points to 1,573.51 from yesterday’s close of 1,609.19.
The index opened 0.23 of a point easier at 1,608.96, and moved between 1,564.06 and 1,608.96 throughout the day.
On the broader market, losers trounced gainers 858 to 303, while 369 counters were unchanged, 671 untraded and 87 suspended.
Total volume swelled to 8.36 billion shares valued at RM4.22 billion from yesterday’s 5.78 billion shares valued at RM3.59 billion.
Losses in glove stocks were due to United States Customs and Border Protection’s allegation of forced labour in Top Glove Corp Bhd’s production process.
Top Glove shed 25 sen to RM4.52, Hartalega trimmed 43 sen to RM8.93 and Supermax weakened 14 sen to RM3.81. The three stocks accounted for 7.49 points to the loss in the key index.
On other heavyweights, Maybank fell 15 sen to RM8.25, Public Bank was 8 sen easier at RM4.20, Petronas Chemicals went down 10 sen to RM8, TNB gave up 28 sen to RM10.12 and IHH Healthcare eased 11 sen to RM5.32.
As for active counters, Berjaya Corp rose 6 sen to 45.5 sen, Scomi gained 1 sen to 6.5 sen, Barakah Offshore increased 2 sen to 11 sen and AT Systematization eased 1 sen to 9.5 sen.
The downtrend in the local market was in line with its regional peers. – Bernama, March 31, 2021
