KUALA LUMPUR (March 24): Bursa Malaysia ended the week lower in line with regional markets on Friday (March 24), as investors remained wary that the global banking crisis could worsen, despite the assurance from US Treasury Secretary Janet Yellen to keep deposits safe at banks, said an analyst.

The weaker sentiment on the local bourse prompted the key index to fall 0.80% to below the 1,400-point level.

At 5pm on Friday, the benchmark FBM KLCI had fallen 11.28 points to 1,399.70, which was the day’s low, from Thursday's close at 1,410.98.   

The market bellwether opened 0.15 of a point higher at 1,411.13, and hit an intraday high of 1,411.67 in the early session. 

On the broader market, decliners led gainers 496 to 339, while 440 counters were unchanged, 998 untraded, and 11 others suspended.

Turnover fell to 2.99 billion units worth RM1.91 billion, from Thursday's 3.26 billion units worth RM2.03 billion. 

Rakuten Trade Sdn Bhd equity research vice-president Thong Pak Leng said the recent banking crisis in the US and Europe had very little impact on Malaysia, as the local banking system is highly regulated, whereby asset quality risks are well contained.

"However, due to uncertain global and regional conditions, we expect short-term market sentiment to remain nervous,” he said in a note on Friday.

Regionally, Singapore's Straits Times Index slid 0.20% to 3,212.64, Hong Kong's Hang Seng Index decreased 0.67% to 19,915.68, Japan's Nikkei 225 eased 0.13% to 27,385.25, and China's SSE Composite Index slipped 0.64% to 3,265.65. 

Among Bursa heavyweights, MISC Bhd increased three sen to RM7.19 a share, Malayan Banking Bhd (Maybank) depreciated six sen to RM8.43, Public Bank Bhd shed five sen to RM3.90, while CIMB Group Holdings Bhd at RM5.19 and Tenaga Nasional Bhd at RM9.54 had slipped two sen each.

Among the actives, Dagang NeXchange Bhd went up three sen to 59 sen, AT Systematization Bhd was flat at one sen, Revenue Group Bhd declined 2.5 sen to 27.5 sen, Computer Forms (Malaysia) Bhd sank 7.5 sen to 27.5 sen, and Top Glove Corp Bhd slid 6.5 sen to 95.5 sen.

On the index board, the FBM Emas Index lost 78.87 points to 10,258.18, the FBMT 100 Index decreased 77.34 points to 9,951.83, and the FBM 70 Index declined 91.46 points to 13,297.72.

The FBM Emas Shariah Index went down 71.33 points to 10,599.21, and the FBM ACE Index dropped 10.83 points to 5,303.82.    

Sector-wise, the Financial Services Index dipped 116.63 points to 15,449.52, the Energy Index fell 8.37 points to 802.88, the Plantation Index shaved off 55.58 points to 6,713.93, and the Industrial Products and Services Index gave up 1.63 points to 165.54.     

The Main Market volume dwindled to 1.89 billion shares worth RM1.64 billion, against 2.28 billion shares worth RM1.76 billion on Thursday.   

Warrant turnover narrowed to 415.85 million units worth RM51.81 million, from 433.61 million units worth RM73.54 million.

The ACE Market volume expanded to 676.06 million shares worth RM216.94 million, from 546.78 million shares worth RM189.56 million previously.     

Consumer product and service counters accounted for 245.12 million shares traded on the Main Market, followed by industrial products and services (432.20 million), construction (39.84 million), technology (440.29 million), special purpose acquisition companies (nil), financial services (80.36 million), property (133.95 million), plantation (31.56 million), real estate investment trusts (7.05 million), closed/funds (900), energy (915.03 million), healthcare (280.27 million), telecommunications and media (61.95 million), transportation and logistics (25.19 million), and utilities (22.54 million).

https://www.theedgemarkets.com/node/660639