Friday 29 Mar 2024
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This article first appeared in The Edge Financial Daily on March 13, 2020

KUALA LUPUR: The FBM KLCI slid 24.4 points or 1.69% at its intraday low yesterday while Bursa Malaysia’s index for small market capitalisation (small cap) stocks fell by a larger quantum, down by 5.74% yesterday.

The World Health Organisation’s declaration that Covid-19 is now a pandemic dampened the sentiment further.

Such sentiment hit world equity and crude oil markets as investors weighed the economic impact of the Covid-19 outbreak and as the Russia-Saudi Arabia crude oil price war led to concerns of additional supply of the commodity.

Analysts noted that the selldown on the local bourse was less severe compared with the regional peers mainly because foreign funds had mostly underweight on Malaysian market in the past two years. Meanwhile, some local investment money, particularly the government-linked funds, would start nibbling on oversold stocks.

The sole gainer was the healthcare index after the gauge, which tracks stocks including rubber glove manufacturers, rose 0.15%.

Rubber glove manufacturers Top Glove Corp Bhd, Kossan Rubber Industries Bhd and Hartalega Holdings Bhd shares closed up among Bursa’s top gainers on expectation the Covid-19 pandemic will lead to higher glove demand. 

Across Bursa, 3.79 billion shares were traded for RM3.07 billion. There were 167 gainers versus 923 decliners.

Top decliners included Carlsberg Brewery Malaysia Bhd, Heineken Malaysia Bhd and Public Bank Bhd.

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