Weak Sentiment Drags Malaysia Stock Market To Close Lower

KUALA LUMPUR, June 28 (Bernama) -- The Malaysia stock market (Bursa Malaysia) closed lower Wednesday on weak regional sentiment, curbing investors risk appetite, with selling mostly spotted in bluechips led by Genting. The benchmark FTSE Bursa Malaysia KLCI (FBM KLCI) ended 8.22 points lower to close at 1,771.23 from Friday's 1,779.45 after fluctuating between 1,770.78 and 1,788.87 throughout the day. The key index opened 7.74 points higher at 1,787.19 this morning. Genting Malaysia dragged down the composite index by 2.427 points. It closed 24 sen lower at RM5.59 with 8.18 million shares changing hands. Losers outpaced gainers by 484 to 369, with 357 counters unchanged, 602 untraded and 59 others suspended. Volume improved to 1.40 billion units valued at RM1.85 billion from 1.31 billion units valued at RM1.54 billion last Friday. Bursa Malaysia was closed on Monday and Tuesday for Hari Raya Aildilfitri holidays. In line with regional peers, sentiment in Bursa Malaysia was affected by the discouraging performance on Wall Street overnight, which closed lower after the US Senate delayed the health care vote. Brent crude oil fell almost one per cent dampened by renewed concerns over the supply glut following the release of a report that indicated that the US fuel inventories were on the uptrend. Regionally, Japan's Nikkei 225 Index fell 0.47 per cent to 20,130.41, Hong Kong’s Hang Seng lost 0.61 per cent to 25,683.5, while Singapore’s Straits Times Index eased 0.14 per cent to 3,215.02. Among heavyweights, Maybank rose three sen to RM9.63, while both Sime Darby and CIMB were flat at RM9.61 and RM6.68 respectively. Tenaga eased two sen to RM14.14, Public Bank fell 12 sen to RM20.26, and Petronas Chemicals inched down half-a-sen to RM7.10. Of the actives, Pasukhas gained two sen to 18.5 sen, Bumi Armada perked three sen to 75 sen while Borneo Oil, Sapura Energy and Tiger Synergy were all flat at 11 sen, RM1.57 and 6.5 sen respectively. -- BERNAMA