Malaysian Stock Market Ends Broadly Lower

KUALA LUMPUR, Feb 5 (Bernama) -- The Malaysian stock market (Bursa Malaysia) ended broadly lower Monday on selling pressures across-the-board, tracking its regional peers and following last Friday’s slide on Wall Street, dealers said. At 5 pm, the FTSE Bursa Malaysia KLCI (FBM KLCI) was down 17.41 points to 1,853.07 from Friday's close of 1,870.48. The index moved between 1,842.06 and 1,857.39 throughout the day after opening 22.63 points weaker at 1,847.85. The market breadth was negative, with losers outpacing gainers by 965 to 167, with 290 counters unchanged, 410 untraded and 19 others suspended. Turnover, however, rose to 2.65 billion shares worth RM2.84 billion from Friday’s 2.61 billion units worth RM3.25 billion. A dealer said inflation and rising US Treasury yields sparked worries in the markets after the US stock market had its worst day in two years last Friday. “All the markets will be focusing on Wall Street’s opening today to see what happens next,” he said. Of the heavyweights, Maybank fell eight sen to RM10.02, Tenaga rose two sen to RM15.82, Public Bank eased two sen to RM21.98 and CIMB declined 16 sen to RM7.09. The top losers were Hengyuan lost 58 sen to RM13.04, Petron Malaysia Refining & Marketing shed 48 sen to RM11.34, MISC dipped 37 sen to RM7.20 and LPI contracted 32 sen to RM19.20. Among the active counters, Hibiscus Petroleum fell 7.5 sen to 87.5 sen, Sapura Energy shed three sen to 70.5 sen, Sumatec shed one sen to 7.5 sen and PUC was flat at 24.5 sen. The FBM Emas Index lost 155.89 points to 13,220.69, FBMT 100 Index was down 145.98 points to 12,925.73 and the FBM 70 declined 266.04 points to 16,202.14.. The FBM Emas Shariah Index fell 162.40 points to 13,489.42 and the FBM Ace shed 144.70 points to 6,351.43. Sector-wise, the Finance Index fell 225.89 points to 17,753.69, Industrial Index was 54.85 points lower at 3,332.56 and the Plantation Index dipped 73.40 points to 7,983.00. -- BERNAMA