Market Daily Report: Bursa Malaysia ends at intraday low amid heavy regional selldown after Wall St tumble

KUALA LUMPUR (Sept 14): Bursa Malaysia ended broadly lower for the second consecutive day on Wednesday (Sept 14), dragged down by persistent selling across the board, in tandem with the heavy selldown seen in regional bourses after a tumble on Wall Street overnight.

At 5pm, the FTSE Bursa Malaysia KLCI (FBM KLCI) dropped 19.40 points or 1.30% to finish at its intraday low of 1,468.44, from Tuesday's close of 1,487.84.

The benchmark index, which opened 12.60 points lower at 1,475.24, reached its highest at 1,480.55 in early trade. 

Market breadth was negative with decliners thumping advancers 595 to 256, while 387 counters were unchanged, 1,113 untraded, and 13 others suspended.

Total turnover was marginally lower at 2.63 billion units worth RM1.63 billion from 2.64 billion units worth RM1.74 billion on Tuesday.

UOB Kay Hian Wealth Advisors Sdn Bhd head of wealth research and advisor Mohd Sedek Jantan said the Malaysian stock market fell after the sell-off on Wall Street overnight. 

"Volatility increased due to the unexpectedly high US inflation report last night. Volatility in regional equity, bond, and currency markets is set to return after the relative calm in the past few sessions. The fall (in regional markets) was influenced by the sell-off in US markets.

"On the other hand, the hot inflation eliminates the possibility that the US Federal Reserve (Fed) would do a 50 basis points (bps) hike next week, but (the inflation rate) isn't disastrous enough to prompt a major push for a 100 bps hike," he told Bernama. 

Mohd Sedek reckons that the Fed will raise interest rates by 75 bps next week, hence he expects the market to continue to be volatile till this week, with all the negative sentiment.

Rakuten Trade Sdn Bhd vice-president of equity research Thong Pak Leng said the consumer price index (CPI) reading showed that the Fed is likely to keep raising interest rates at a sharp pace this year to combat inflation, a scenario that is negative for stock markets. 

He reckons the short-term outlook of the local market will remain cautious. "While valuations remain cheap, we do not expect the FBM KLCI to see any major movement, thus, we anticipate it moving within the 1,460 (points) to 1,480 points range towards the weekend," he said.

Meanwhile, Bursa heavyweights Maybank fell seven sen to RM8.85, Public Bank dropped eight sen to RM4.44, Petronas Chemicals dipped one sen to RM8.70, and CIMB shrank six sen to RM5.39, while IHH Healthcare was flat at RM6.20.

Of the actives, both Metronic Global and Aimflex eased half-a-sen to two sen and 15 sen respectively, Velesto Energy trimmed one sen to 10.5 sen, and Top Glove was down by two sen to 78.5 sen, while SNS Network improved one sen to 30 sen.

On the index board, the FBM Emas Index declined 123.06 points to 10,475.20, the FBMT 100 Index slid 123.22 points to 10,217.00, the FBM Emas Shariah Index weakened 127.69 points to 10,592.79, the FBM 70 went down 106.26 points to 12,708.17, and the FBM ACE slipped 55.82 points to 4,844.90.

Sector-wise, the Energy Index shed 8.73 points to 718.94, the Plantation Index dropped 53.86 points to 6,945.04, the Industrial Products and Services Index eased 1.70 points to 181.75, and the Financial Services Index gave up 182.94 points to 16,484.05.

The Main Market volume inched up to 1.70 billion shares worth RM1.30 billion, from 1.69 billion shares worth RM1.40 billion on Tuesday.

Warrants turnover expanded to 298.73 million units valued at RM47.18 million, from 250.05 million units valued at RM38.34 million previously.

The ACE Market volume declined to 632.45 million shares worth RM288.92 million, from 697.23 million shares worth RM296.15 million on Tuesday. 

Consumer products and services counters accounted for 176.80 million shares traded on the Main Market, industrial products and services (650.43 million), construction (24.64 million), technology (121.87 million), SPAC (nil), financial services (50.33 million), property (131.81 million), plantation (26.26 million), REITs (4.97 million), closed/fund (10,000), energy (345.32 million), healthcare (97.30 million), telecommunications and media (18.60 million), transportation and logistics (39.53 million), and utilities (11.50 million).

Source: The Edge