KUALA LUMPUR (April 13): The FBM KLCI closed down 1.47 points or 0.1% at 1,356.03 today, while rubber glove manufacturers’ share price gained, following global updates on the rising number of Covid-19 pandemic cases and higher death toll from the outbreak. 

At 5pm, the KLCI closed down at 1,356.03, after erasing gains in the final trading hour. During the day, the KLCI had fallen to its intraday low at 1,352.78, before rising to its intraday high at 1,359.68.

Rubber glove manufacturers’ share price rise had partly helped Bursa Malaysia’s healthcare index become the top gainer among Bursa indices. Among rubber glove manufacturers, Top Glove Corp Bhd’s share price closed up 17 sen or 2.62% at RM6.67. Top Glove had earlier today risen to its all-time high at RM6.83.

Bursa’s healthcare index, which tracks share prices of rubber glove manufacturers, pharmaceutical companies and hospital operators ended up 20.65 points or 1.55% at 1,349.01.

Pharmaniaga Bhd’s share price added nine sen or 5.84% to RM1.63, while IHH Healthcare Bhd rose two sen or 0.39% to RM5.11.

Across Bursa, 3.12 billion shares worth RM1.51 billion were traded. There were 307 gainers and 497 decliners, as the stock market also took cue from the Organization of the Petroleum Exporting Countries and its allies including Russia — a group known as OPEC+’s agreement to reduce crude oil output and support prices of the commodity.  

"After a tortuous series of meetings, the OPEC+ group finally announced a 9.7 million barrels per day (bpd) production cut. US, China and Brazil will add another 3.7 million bpd of cuts, while G20 nations are expected to chip in with an additional 1.3 million bpd of cuts. 

While the production cut headline looks impressive, details are not forthcoming and there are widespread concerns over compliance to the production cuts,” UOB Group markets strategy head Heng Koon How and markets strategist Quek Ser Leang wrote in a note today.

"The intensifying Covid-19 outbreak is expected (to) trigger a deep global recession in 1H20 and will likely result in an unprecedented drop in global energy demand. The EIA (US Energy Information Administration) has warned that global energy surplus could jump in excess of 15 million bpd by April 2020. As such, we maintain our negative outlook for Brent crude oil. At most, the latest OPEC+ production cut may put a near term floor in Brent crude oil at around USD 25/bbl, but it will not change the dire demand-supply dynamics in the coming quarters,” they said.

Reuters reported more than 1.8 million people have been reported to be infected by the novel coronavirus globally and 113,849 have died, according to a Reuters tally. Infections have been reported in more than 210 countries and territories, since the first cases were identified in China in December 2019, it said.