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KUALA LUMPUR: Bursa Malaysia closed lower on Wednesday as the contagion effect of Wall Street’s tech sell-off spread to key Asian markets.
The FBM KLCI was dragged into the red at the beginning of the trade due to the sale of Hartalega
, Top Glove, IHH Healthcare and Tenaga Nasional and remained in the negative zone throughout the day.
At 5 p.m., the KLCI was down 22.6 points, or 1.49%, to 1,496.72 and is down nearly 6% so far this year.
Turnover in Bursa was 7.690 million shares valued at RM4.89bil. There were 314 winners, 846 losers, and 325 unchanged counters.
Key Asian markets also closed lower with Japan’s Nikkei 225 falling 1.04%. Hong Kong’s Hang Seng Indecx 0.63%, Shanghai Composite 1.86%, South Korea’s Kospit 1.09% and Singapore’s Straits Times Index 0.14%.
In Bursa, where the recovery was driven solely by retail investors in recent months, profit-taking from glove manufacturers had accelerated.
Top Glove fell 49 sen to RM7.15 and erased 6.05 points from the KLCI, while Hartalega lost 60 sen to RM13 and eliminated 3.12 points.
The biggest loser was Kossan, which fell 10.5% or RM1.54 to RM10.96 followed by Supermax 93 sen lower at RM7.48. Careplus lost 23 sen to RM2.62.
IHH Healthcare lost 33 sen to RM5.35 and eliminated 3.12 points. Pharmaniaga it remained stable at RM4.56 but off an intraday low of RM4.35. Duopharma seven sen at RM2.97.
Among semiconductor and technology-related stocks, MPI fell 92 sen to RM16.88 and KESM 17 sen to RM8.61. However, Unisem rose 10 sen to RM3.37, Globetronics eight sen to RM2.65 and Inari three sen to RM2.10. UWC rose 15 sen to RM6.01.
Maybank fell five sen to RM7.45, CIMB three sen to RM3.20, Hong Leong Bank two sen to RM14.78 but Public Bank gained 10 sen to RM16.10.
Oil futures recovered some of the losses they suffered in the previous session, but a rebound in Covid-19 cases in some countries undermined hopes for a steady recovery in global demand, Reuters reported. Brent crude rose 60 cents to $ 40.38 and US crude rose 74 cents to $ 37.50 a barrel.
Petronas Dagangan fell 44 sen to RM21.18, Petonas Gas 18 sen to RM16.60 and Petronas Chemicals seven sen to RM5.60 while Dialog lost one sen to RM3.64.
Crude palm oil for the third month delivery fell RM18 to RM2,853 per tonne. Sime Plantation added three sen to RM5.12. However, IOI Corp fell two sen to RM4.43, PPB Group 10 sen to RM18.56 and KL Kepong 28 sen to RM22.32.
Weighing in on the KLCI was also Tenaga, which fell 14 sen to RM11.18, MISC 12 sen to RM7.52 while Genting and GentingM each lost one sen to RM2.32 and RM3.57.
The ringgit weakened 0.1% against the US dollar at 4.1718.
Spot gold fell 77 cents to $ 1,931.26 a troy ounce.
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