Friday 29 Mar 2024
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KUALA LUMPUR (Dec 4): The FBM KLCI spent the day in negative territory as funds appear to have sold in order to readjust their portfolios following Bursa Malaysia’s semi-annual review of the index.

The benchmark index closed 4.73 points or 0.28% lower at 1,713.13.

Funds, especially those which are index-linked, may have contributed to the heavy selling today as they readjusted their holdings to reflect the new components of the index, said Pong Teng Siew, head of research at Inter Pacific Securities Sdn Bhd.

IJM Corp Bhd and Sime Darby Property Bhd, which are among the two counters that will be losing their places in the component stocks list, were the top decliners among the index’s movers.

Across the bourse, a total of 1.8 billion shares were crossed today for a total value of RM2.57 billion.

Decliners trumped gainers with a 3-to-1 ratio, led by Hartalega Holdings Bhd, Allianz Malaysia Bhd and Malaysian Pacific Industries Bhd.

The most actively traded counters were Sime Darby Bhd, Berjaya Corp Bhd and DGB Asia Bhd, while gainers were led by Hengyuan Refining Co Bhd, British American Tobacco (M) Bhd and Hong Leong Financial Group Bhd.

Across Asia, shares were weak on fears that liquidity would be squeezed by tightening US policy, Reuters reported. MSCI’s broadest index of Asia Pacific shares outside Japan hovered near more than one-month lows while the Nikkei fell 0.5%.

In China, the SSE Composite slipped 0.2% while Australian shares fell 0.1%. Hong Kong’s Hang Seng, however, managed to rise 0.22% to 29,138.28.

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