Malaysia's Stock Market Ends At Intra-Day Low

KUALA LUMPUR, Jan 9 (Bernama) -- Malaysia's stock market, Bursa Malaysia ended at its intra-day low today due to weak buying sentiment on heightened uncertainties over US monetary policy when president-elect Donald Trump takes office on Jan 20, 2017. At the close, the benchmark FTSE Bursa Malaysia (FBM KLCI) ended 7.59 points weaker at 1,667.9 from last Friday's close of 1,675.49. After opening 0.16 of-a-point lower at 1,675.33, the FBM KLCI also touched an intra-day high of 1,675.69 during today's session. Losers outpaced gainers by 422 to 375, with 362 counters unchanged, 564 untraded and 21 others were suspended. Volume fell to 1.8 billion shares worth RM1.45 billion from 1.97 billion shares worth RM1.96 billion last Friday. A dealer said Trump's win had caused major realignment in markets, which led to higher US bond yields and stronger US dollar, while sparking capital outflows from emerging economies. "The weaker performance of the local index was also due to profit-taking following FBM KLCI's three consecutive sessions of rally last week," he added. Among heavyweights, Maybank added one sen to RM8.26, TNB lost two sen to RM13.92, Sime Darby declined 10 sen to RM8.45 and Public Bank was flat at RM20. On actives, Hibiscus Petroleum rose four sen to 47.5 sen, Sumatec gained half-a-sen to 9.5 sen and Green Packet lost one sen to 29.5 sen. ACE market debutant, GFM Services, closed 8.5 sen better at 46.5 sen with 5619 million shares transacted. Meanwhile, Bursa Malaysia today issued an Unusual Market Activity query to Dataprep Holdings Bhd due to the recent surge in its share price. Dataprep's shares rose 1.5 sen to 22 sen with 21.97 million shares traded. The FBM Emas Index declined 40.35 points to 11,658.54, FBMT 100 Index fell 44.03 points to 11,363.75 and the FBM Emas Shariah Index was 61.72 points lower at 12,231.12. The FBM Ace was 31.69 points better at 4,917.22 and the FBM 70 slid 21.91 points to 13,224.42. Sector-wise, the Industrial Index fell 19.75 points to 3,174.64, Finance Index declined 17.55 points to 14,622.94 and the Plantation Index rose 1.26 points to 7,892.11. -- BERNAMA