Bursa Malaysia Ends Marginally Lower Amid Lack of Fresh Catalysts

KUALA LUMPUR, Sept 28 – Bursa Malaysia finished marginally lower on Monday due to ongoing profit-taking and selling pressure, as investors remained on the sidelines following a lack of new market catalysts to stimulate buying interest.

At the 5:00 PM closing bell, the benchmark FTSE Bursa Malaysia KLCI (FBM KLCI) shed 1.60 points, or 0.09 per cent, to close at 1,670.02, down from Friday’s close of 1,671.62.

The market opened 0.93 of a point higher at 1,672.55 before trading between a low of 1,668.61 and a high of 1,674.11 throughout the day.

Overall market sentiment was negative, with market breadth showing decliners overwhelming gainers 748 to 388. A total of 517 counters ended unchanged, 1,271 went untraded, and 91 were suspended. Total transaction volume dipped to 3.11 billion units valued at RM2.40 billion, compared to 4.07 billion units worth RM2.69 billion recorded on Friday.

Heavyweight Performance & Active Stocks

Heavyweight performance was mixed across key blue chips:

• Maybank eased 6 sen to RM10.16.
• Public Bank fell 1 sen to RM4.79.
• CIMB advanced 9 sen to RM7.99.
• Tenaga Nasional added 2 sen to RM13.16.
• IHH Healthcare picked up 2 sen to RM8.01.

Among active counters, Zetrix AI closed flat at 19 sen. Jaks Resources rose 1.5 sen to 18.5 sen, Aimax gained half a sen to 1 sen, while ACE Market debutant Evocom fell 5 sen to 13 sen, and Inari Amertron dropped 11 sen to RM2.55.

Top Movers & Losers

The top gainers list was led by financial institutions and select property/energy plays:

• Hong Leong Bank climbed 22 sen to RM23.36.
• Hong Leong Financial Group expanded 18 sen to RM18.90.
• Ayer Holdings gained 12 sen to RM7.60.
• Grand Central jumped 11 sen to 42 sen.
• Solarvest moved up 10 sen to RM4.16.

On the losing end, Malaysian Pacific Industries topped the decliners list after plunging RM1.98 to RM42.20. United Plantations dropped 98 sen to RM31.60, Fraser & Neave erased 78 sen to RM22.22, Hong Leong Industries slid 30 sen to RM16.66, and Kelington dropped 27 sen to RM8.72.

Sectoral & Index Performance

Key indices closed mostly in negative territory:

• The Financial Services Index gained 47.89 points to 19,598.38.
• The Plantation Index dropped 116.38 points to 9,218.49.
• The Industrial Products and Services Index shed 1.30 points to 182.80.
• The Energy Index eased 0.01 of a point to 861.82.
• The FBM Mid 70 Index dropped 157.14 points to 17,687.77.
• The FBM Emas Index dropped 41.85 points to 12,414.79.
• The FBM Top 100 Index fell 36.51 points to 12,206.95.
• The FBM Emas Shariah Index slid 63.91 points to 12,242.32.
• The FBM ACE Index declined 42.25 points to 5,490.61.

Main Market volume settled at 1.69 billion units worth RM2.05 billion. Technology counters led trading volume on the Main Market with 465.42 million shares traded, followed by consumer products and services (263.69 million) and industrial products and services (235.10 million).

–NMT