Malaysian Stock Market Closes Lower On Broader External Market Weakness

KUALA LUMPUR, Oct 19 (Bernama) -- The Malaysian stock market (Bursa Malaysia) ended lower Friday on a broader external market weakness, but the decline was capped by selective play in plantations and third liners, an analyst said. The benchmark FTSE Bursa Malaysia KLCI (FBM KLCI) declined 5.87 points to 1,732.14 against Thursday’s close of 1,738.01. The index opened 4.3 points lower at 1,733.71 and moved between 1,718.13 and 1,733.71 throughout the day. Maybank Investment Bank Chartist Nik Ihsan Raja Abdullah said overall market sentiment was dampened by external weakness on concerns over the US-China trade dispute, China’s economic growth and rising interest rates in the US. “However, selective play in plantation stocks and third liners helped support the market from further decline,” he told Bernama. Among Bursa Malaysia's heavyweights, Maybank was flat at RM9.60, while Public Bank and TNB lost two sen each to RM25 and RM14.56 respectively, Petronas Chemicals eased four sen to RM9.39 and CIMB was one sen lower at RM6.02. As for actives, Iris added three sen to 17.5 sen, while MyEG dropped 37 sen to RM1.13, Datasonic shed 21 sen to 48.5 sen, Sapura Energy slipped one sen to 33.5 sen and Prestariang fell eight sen to 54 sen. Market breadth was negative with losers leading gainers 579 to 252, with 366 counters unchanged, 702 untraded and 61 others suspended. Volume was higher at 2.41 billion units valued at RM2.3 billion from Thursday’s 2.0 billion units valued at RM2.02 billion. -- BERNAMA