Bursa Malaysia remains in the red at mid-morning

KUALA LUMPUR, 12 June 2020 – Bursa Malaysia remained in the red at mid-morning, being broadly lower on persistent selling in heavyweight stocks.

The local bourse continued to track the performance of regional peers after an overnight rout on Wall Street as renewed fears that a second COVID-19 wave will further dampen global growth sent chills to the markets, dealers said.

At 11.00am, the benchmark FTSE Bursa Malaysia KLCI (FBM KLCI) fell 24.11 points to 1,533.14 from Thursday’s close of 1,557.25.

The index opened 44.86 points lower at 1,512.39.

On the broader market, losers outpaced gainers by 906 versus 148, while 243 counters were unchanged, 612 untraded and 20 others suspended.

Turnover stood at 4.01 billion units worth RM2.20 billion.

Hong Leong Bank Bhd in a note today said risk sentiment retreated in global markets overnight, sending US stocks down by 5 to 7 per cent as investors became concerned over a second COVID-19 wave in the country after cases in the country topped two million and jumped in more than 20 states.

A dealer said the FBM KLCI was on a downward bias today after US stocks on Thursday marked the worst day amid signs of a re-acceleration of cases of COVID-19, and as investors digested Wednesday’s sobering economic outlook from Federal Reserve chairman Jerome Powell.

Among the heavyweights, Maybank fell 17 sen to RM7.91, Tenaga shed six sen to RM11.90, Public Bank dropped 46 sen to RM16.78, Petronas Chemicals reduced 28 sen at RM6.42 and IHH Healthcare eased four sen to RM5.46.

Of the most active, AT Systematization slid one sen to 13.5 sen, Lambo eased half-a-sen to two sen, Connectcounty edged up 3.5 sen to 33.5 sen, while Pegasus and its warrant were flat at one sen and half-a-sen respectively.

On the index board, the FBM Emas Index slipped 180.55 points to 10,781.16, the FBMT 100 Index fell 176.33 points to 10,644.84 and the FBM 70 tumbled 256.33 points to 12,263.97.

The FBM Emas Shariah Index declined 152.84 points to 12,221.16 and the FBM ACE decreased 106.60 points to 5,729.91.

Sector-wise, the Industrial Products and Services Index eased 3.67 points to 134.44, the Plantation Index slipped 84.94 points to 6,727.60 and the Financial Services Index tumbled 304.63 points to 13,342.71.

– Bernama