Malaysian Stock Market Ends Lower On Cautious Trading

KUALA LUMPUR, Sept 12 (Bernama) – The Malaysian stock market (Bursa Malaysia) gave up early gains to end lower after a long weekend as investors were cautious on the escalating trade war between China and the US, dealers said. The benchmark FTSE Bursa Malaysia KLCI (FBM KLCI) lost 13.92 points to end at 1,785.25, after fluctuating between 1,780.91 and 1,822.68 throughout the day. The index opened 11.02 points higher at 1,810.19 from Friday’s closing of 1,799.17. The market resumed trading today after two days of public holidays on Monday, in lieu of the Yang di-Pertuan Agong’s (King) birthday on Sunday, and Tuesday for Awal Muharram. On the broader market, losers trounced gainers 896 to 166, with 277 counters unchanged, 544 untraded and 44 others suspended. Volume rose to 2.23 billion units worth RM2.81 billion from 1.73 billion units worth RM1.64 billion last Friday. A dealer said the market was cautious following news that the US President Donald Trump is set to slap another tariffs on a further US$267 billion worth of Chinese imports into America, if he desired, . “Market sentiment was negatively impacted as investors are keeping their eye on the next move by the Chinese government,” he said. It was reported that China would seek permission from the World Trade Organisation to impose sanctions on the US soon. Of heavyweights, Maybank fell nine sen to RM9.80, Public Bank was down eight sen to RM24.92, Tenaga rose two sen to RM15.82 and PChem was flat at RM9.43. Among actives, Sapura Energy rose two sen to 35.5 sen, Borneo Oil climbed half-a-sen to six sen, MyEG declined 13 sen to RM1.50 while Nexgram was flat at 2.5 sen. Separately, Bursa Malaysia announced that the exchange and its subsidiaries will be closed on Monday, Sept 17, 2018 in lieu of Malaysia Day which falls on Sunday, Sept 16, and will resume operations on Tuesday, Sept 18. -- BERNAMA