Political wrangling drags Bursa to eight-year low

Bursa Malaysia ended in the red today after domestic political wrangling culminating in the resignation of Dr Mahathir Mohamad as prime minister and Parti Pribumi Bersatu Malaysia chairperson.

At close, the benchmark FTSE Bursa Malaysia KLCI (FBM KLCI) was 2.68 percent or 41.14 points lower compared with Friday’s close of 1,531.20.

The market capital for the day was recorded at RM986.14 billion with money flow of RM25.50 billion.

Throughout the day, the index moved between 1,485.71 to 1,510.42 after opening at 1,501,47.

On the scoreboard, losers outpaced gainers 1,015 to 137 with 222 unchanged, 625 untraded and 21 counters suspended.

Turnover, meanwhile, almost doubled to 4.03 billion worth RM3.90 billion compared with 2.73 billion shares worth RM2.14 billion on Friday.

Institutional investors step in

An analyst said the heated political landscape is expected to cause the market to be on a downtrend, as investors started pulling out from the local market since morning.

However, institutional investors have entered the market to buffer the decline to avoid it from falling further.

“The index had fallen to the lowest level since 2011, marking more than an eight-year low. With the current global economic slowdown, combined with the ongoing political tussle, the market would be in the red until clarity is assured,” she said.

She added that with the trouble brewing on the horizon, the construction sector would be affected badly as a majority of the projects are either just being revived or announced.

Across the board, all indices were in red with construction leading the loss, shedding 6.07 percent, followed by energy, declining 4.05 percent followed by transportation, falling 4.02 percent.

Construction sector takes pounding

Blue-chip stocks took the heaviest hit, with Maybank, declining 21 sen to RM8.20, Tenaga Nasional shrinking 64 sen to RM12.14, Public Bank reducing 74 sen to RM17.40, Petronas Chemicals sliding nine sen to RM6.36, and IHH weakening 14 sen to RM5.60.

The construction index, which took the hardest hit, witnessed government-linked companies such as Gamuda, erasing 47 sen to RM3.51 with a total trade volume of 41.40 million shares.

As of actives, Advance Synergy and Sapura Energy both declined half-a-sen to 15 sen and 23 sen, respectively, while MyEG declined eight sen to RM1.22.

On the index board, the FBM Emas Index slipped 319.51 points to 10,646.10, the FBMT 100 Index declined 308.74 points to 10,438.37 and the FBM Ace shed 98.78 points to 5,648.14.

The FBM Emas Shariah Index gave up 332.29 points to 11,324.97 and the FBM 70 dipped 480.58 points to 13,401.21.

Sector-wise, the Industrial Products and Services Index eased 2.81 points to 142.98, the Financial Services Index shed 374.30 points to 14,321.62 and the Plantation Index erased 219.11 points to 6,915.54.

Main Market volume increased to 2.82 billion shares worth RM3.62 billion compared with 1.51 billion shares valued at RM1.86 billion last Friday.

Warrants turnover rose to 455.79 million units worth RM71.39 million from 398.58 million units worth RM75.46 million.

Volume on the ACE Market declined to 752.43 million worth RM204.35 million from 821.86 million shares valued at RM196.23 million last Friday.

Consumer products and services accounted for 678.44 million shares traded on the Main Market, industrial products and services (373.92 million), construction (216.51 million), technology (419.00 million), SPAC (nil), financial services (119.26 million), property (179.42 million), plantations (39.18 million), REITs (11.60 million), closed/fund (133,800), energy (507.15 million), healthcare (65.93 million), telecommunications and media (87.05 million), transportation and logistics (67.42 million), and utilities (58.77 million).

- Bernama