Friday 29 Mar 2024
By
main news image

KUALA LUMPUR (Oct 26): The main index at Bursa Malaysia pared some of its loss, as sentiment somewhat remained subdued despite a proclamation of an emergency, which was bandied about last Friday, being averted.

At 12.30pm, the FBM KLCI was down 7.70 points to 1,486.94. The index had earlier slipped to a low of 1,482.80.

Market breadth was negative with 466 losers and 201 gainers, while 683 counters traded unchanged. Trading volume was 3.48 billion shares valued at RM2.53 billion.

The top losers included Supermax Corp Bhd, Mi Technovation Bhd, Hartalega Holdings Bhd, Petronas Dagangan Bhd, Bursa Malaysia Bhd, Carlsberg Brewery Malaysia Bhd, Top Glove Corp Bhd, Nestle (M) Bhd, Comfort Gloves Bhd and Aeon Credit Services (M) Bhd.

The actively traded stocks included newly-listed Mr DIY Group (M) Bhd, Vsolar Group Bhd, Advance Synergy Bhd, Luster Industries Bhd, Mah Sing Group Bhd, XOX Bhd, Kanger International Bhd and Sapura Energy Bhd.

The gainers included Malaysian Pacific Industries Bhd, Kuala Lumpur Kepong Bhd, ViTrox Corp Bhd, Unisem (M) Bhd, Time dotCom Bhd, Lii Hen Industries Bhd, UWC Bhd, Mr DIY and Lotte Chemical Titan Holding Bhd.

Reuters said Asian shares got off to a subdued start on Monday as surging coronavirus cases in Europe and the United States threatened the global outlook, while China's leaders met to ponder the future of the economic giant.

The United States has seen its highest ever number of new Covid-19 cases in the past two days, while France also set unwanted case records and Spain announced a state of emergency, it said.

CGS-CIMB Research said while the decision of Yang di-Pertuan Agong Al-Sultan Abdullah Ri'ayatuddin Al-Mustafa Billah Shah to reject the government’s request for emergency powers to fight the Covid-19 pandemic is a major relief for the market and could lead to reduced political noise in the near term, it is unlikely to alleviate foreign investor concerns.

In a strategy note today, CGS-CIMB analyst Ivy Ng Lee Fang said foreign investors were net sellers of Malaysian equities for most of this year due to concerns over political uncertainties and weak corporate earnings.

She said this was offset by net buying by local institutions and local retailers.

“Overall, this is a more favourable outcome for the Malaysian equity market than an emergency decree, but it may not be sufficient to reverse foreign investors’ net selling due to prevailing political uncertainties,” she said.

Ng maintained her FBM KLCI target of 1,520 points for end-2020. 

      Print
      Text Size
      Share