KUALA LUMPUR, Sept 8 (Bernama) -- Bursa Malaysia closed almost flat on Tuesday as buying interest rotated away from index heavyweights towards smaller-cap construction stocks, with sentiment affected by geopolitical uncertainty, said an analyst. At 5 pm, the FTSE Bursa Malaysia KLCI (FBM KLCI) eased 0.39 of a point to 1,714.40 from Monday’s close of 1,714.79. The benchmark index opened 1.65 points lower at 1,713.14 and moved between 1,710.44 and 1,714.50 throughout the trading session. The broader market was almost evenly balanced, with decliners leading gainers 548 to 546, while 598 counters were unchanged, 1,107 were untraded and 25 were suspended. Turnover expanded to 4.13 billion units valued at RM3.14 billion from 3.60 billion units valued at RM2.45 billion on Monday.
I guess every Malaysians should already know by now that the petrol price will go up by 20 cents, two days after the whole nation celebrated a subdue Independence Day. Malaysian celebrated the country's 56th Independence Day on the 31st August this year and the announcement of the petrol price hike by 20 cents was made by the Prime Minister on the 2nd of the September. While the subdue Independence Day celebration clearly shows that the government is running out of fund, not many of us would have imagine that the government would increase the price of the RON95 petrol by 20 cents, and clearly this move brought criticism from almost every one. And while it is hard to swallow, everyone will have to accept the fact that the petrol price will go up by 10% no matter what. There is an economic story behind the hike, although the "hike of the petrol price" should be more referred to as the reduction of the petrol subsidy - because that is actually part of the subsidy rat...