KLCI pares losses but stays below 1,500-mark at closing

Publish date: Thu, 10 Sep 2020, 08:16 PM
KUALA LUMPUR: Bursa Malaysia pared some of its earlier losses but remained in the red at closing, as heavy profit-taking in Top Glove and Hartalega continued to pull the key index lower.
 
At 5 pm, the benchmark FTSE Bursa Malaysia KLCI (FBM KLCI) fell 6.60 points, or 0.44 per cent, to 1,490.12 from Wednesday's close of 1,496.72.
 
After opening 5.50 points firmer at 1,502.22, the market barometer moved between 1,474.23 and 1,504.03 throughout the day.
 
Although the unchanged Overnight Policy Rate (OPR) that stood at 1.75 per cent had lifted four out of six banking heavyweights at the closing bell, gains from the four stocks only contributed 2.125 points to the composite index, far lower than the combined 18.809 points dragged by Top Glove and Hartalega.
 
On the broader market, market breadth remained negative with losers overwhelming gainers 1,023 to 200, while 293 counters were unchanged, 530 untraded and 32 others suspended.
 
The total volume widened to 8.40 billion shares worth RM5.48 billion from 7.69 billion shares worth RM4.89 billion on Wednesday.
 
Of the 30 FBM KLCI counters, Top Glove lost 70 sen to RM6.45 and Hartalega was RM1.12 lower at RM11.88.
 
On banking heavyweights, four were in the black, namely Maybank which added five sen to RM7.50, Public Bank bagged eight sen to RM16.18, Hong Leong Bank rose two sen to RM14.80 and RHB Bank increased four sen to RM4.70.
 
CIMB slid two sen to RM3.18 and Hong Leong Financial was eight sen weaker at RM13.82.
 
Commenting on today's performance, Nomura Securities Malaysia Sdn Bhd equity research head Tushar Mohata said profit-taking in glove counters was the main reason for the FBM KLCI's retreat.
 
"I think it is just profit-taking in glove stocks, and the OPR announcement has not much to do with the KLCI performance today, as catalysts for the banking sector are not so much on the OPR at the moment.
 
"Currently, investors are more looking forward to some economic data that would translate into economic recovery (to drive banks' earnings)," he told Bernama.
 
Despite the heavy sell-off in glove counters, Tushar remained positive on the sector and expected strong earnings into next year due to the average selling price hikes.
 
Overall, he said Bursa Malaysia is still attractive as compared with its ASEAN peers such as Singapore, Indonesia, Thailand, and the Philippines.
 
Across the broader market, glove counters continued to dominate the top losers list, particularly Supermax warrants.
 
Other than Hartalega and Top Glove, glove-linked stocks that succumbed to selling pressure included Supermax which dipped RM1.38 to RM6.10, Kossan slumped RM1.26 to RM9.70, Comfort erased 57 sen to RM3.23 and Careplus trimmed 54 sen to RM4.01.
 
The most actives included XOX which eased 1.5 sen to 18.5 sen, Permaju went down 5.5 sen to 31 sen, Pegasus Heights inched down half-a-sen to 2.5 sen, while its warrant PHB-WB and Asian Pac were flat at 1.5 sen and 12.5 sen respectively.
 
 
 - Bernama

 

Discussions
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wehcant

Today is just a dead cat bouncing. Next week Bursa will drop again!

2020-09-11 16:22

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