KUALA LUMPUR: Bursa Malaysia finished Monday trading on a lower note due to profit-taking activities following the gains recorded on Friday.
However, the pressures were capped by buying in finance-related counters after Bank Negara’s decision on Friday to trim the statutory reserve requirement ratio from 3.5 per cent to three per cent effective this Saturday.
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Hong Leong Bank rose 14 sen to RM17.20, Public Bank added six sen to RM20, Maybank gained two sen to RM8.85 and AMMB improved four sen to RM4.18.
At 5 pm, the benchmark FTSE Bursa Malaysia KLCI (FBM KLCI) slipped 1.58 points to 1,608.15 compared with Friday’s close of 1,609.73.
The key index opened 0.93 of-a-point higher at 1,610.66 and moved between 1,601.99 and 1,611.43.
In the broader market, the gap between losers and gainers widened to 553 against 291, with 396 counters unchanged, 753 untraded and 17 others suspended.
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Volume narrowed to 2.37 billion shares worth RM1.64 billion from 3.11 billion shares worth RM2.15 billion recorded on Friday.
A dealer said the local bourse was tracking other Asian markets’ performance with investors remaining cautious over the ongoing US-China trade tensions as they hoped both economic giants would end their damaging trade war.
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Expectations of a truce in the US-China trade dispute, which is now in its 16th month, were ruined on Friday after US President Donald Trump said he had not agreed with Beijing to roll back all tariffs on Chinese imports.
Back home, the Statistics Department Monday released the September Industrial Production Index, which grew 1.7 per cent year-on-year (y-o-y). It was slightly lower than the 1.9 per cent y-o-y growth recorded in August 2019.
The Malaysian Palm Oil Board, meanwhile, shared the latest data on the country’s total palm oil stocks. The industry regulator said that palm oil inventories eased 4.1 per cent to 2.35 million tonnes in October from 2.45 million tonnes recorded in the previous month while crude palm oil stocks shed 2.19 per cent to 1.32 million tonnes last month from 1.35 million tonnes in September.
“This could push the commodity’s prices higher for the short term; hence we experienced profit-taking in the plantation counters on Monday,” a dealer said.
United Plantation lost 38 sen to RM25.20 and KLK declined 32 sen to RM22.20.
Besides these key data announcements, investors will be closely monitoring the Bank Negara third quarter gross domestic product data, scheduled on Friday, to shed some light on the economy.
Among the heavyweights, Maybank rose two sen to RM8.85 but Tenaga and CIMB slipped four sen each to RM13.80 and RM5.36, respectively, and IHH was seven sen weaker at RM5.44.
Of the actives, Sapura Energy inched down half-a-sen to 29 sen and Velesto Energy fell one sen to 38.5 sen while Trive Property was flat at 1.5 sen.
The top gainers were F&N which jumped 36 sen to RM35, Petronas Dagangan which added 24 sen to RM23.96 and Petra Energy which was 19 sen higher at RM1.64.
The FBM Emas Index erased 5.73 points to 11,389.99, the FBMT 100 Index slipped 2.05 points to 11,205.01 and the FBM Emas Shariah Index decreased 8.5 points to 11,885.27.
The FBM Ace contracted 95.75 points to 4,884.66 but the FBM 70 was 34.47 points firmer at 14,137.03.
Sector-wise, the Financial Services Index added 5.84 points to 15,777.39, the Industrial Products & Services Index edged up 0.50 of-a-point to 155.45 and the Plantation Index slid 6.95 to 6,868.20.
Main Market volume fell to 1.61 billion shares worth RM1.47 billion from 2.19 billion shares worth RM1.92 billion on Friday.
Warrants turnover increased to 383.16 million units worth RM73.16 million versus 285.73 million units worth RM56.94 million.
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