Rakuten Trade Sdn Bhd equity research vice-president Thong Pak Leng said the local exchange is already experiencing the shifting of funds into other sectors amid investors’ rotational plays on selected heavyweights.
Market players started selling their interests in heavyweight stocks in early trade today, putting pressure on the benchmark FTSE Bursa Malaysia KLCI (FBM KLCI).
Sime Darby Plantation and financial services counter saw the most activity as market sentiment remained weak.
The FBM KLCI had eased 2.83 points to 1,425.21 points by 9.05am. It opened at 1,425.45 points, 2.59 points lower than yesterday’s close of 1,428.04.
Sime Darby Plantation’s losses alone pushed the composite index down by 1.25 points. It slipped 11 sen or 2.41% to RM4.45.
At the same time, financial services counters CIMB lost four sen to RM4.97, Public Bank and Maybank eased a sen each to RM3.96 and RM8.75 respectively, while AMMB Holdings shed two sen to RM3.55.
Altogether, these stocks dragged the FBM KLCI down by a combined 1.32 points.
Thong told Bernama profit-taking activities emerged as the regional markets turned volatile on the back of mixed market sentiments, premised on optimism over the US debt ceiling and a spate of disappointing economic data from China.
“We may see some bargain-hunting in the banking sector, hence we anticipate the index to possibly trend within the 1,425 to 1,435 range today,” he said.
On the broader market, there were 141 losers compared with 104 gainers. Another 215 counter traded unchanged while 1,784 did not see any activity. Fourteen others remained suspended.
The turnover stood at 153.79 million units worth RM77.53 million.
Among the heavyweights, Tenaga Nasional slipped a sen to RM9.78, while Petronas Chemicals and IHH Healthcare were flat at RM7.01 and RM5.95 respectively.
Main Market debutant DXN Holdings was the most actively traded stock this morning, losing 1.5 sen over its initial public offering price of 70 sen.
As for the other active counters, TWL Holdings, Tanco, Vsolar and Vinvest were flat at 4.5 sen, 50.5 sen, one sen and seven sen respectively, while Supermax inched up half-a-sen to RM1.
On the index board, the FBM Emas Index shaved 18.31 points to 10,463.46, the FBMT 100 Index declined 19.27 points to 10,463.46, the FBM Emas Shariah Index went down 12.02 points to 10,841.48, the FBM ACE Index contracted 12.9 points to 4,976.22, while the FBM 70 Index lost 22.38 points to 13,663.15.
Sector-wise, the industrial products and services index inched up 0.11 of-a-point to 166.11, the financial services index fell 34.23 points to 15,534.71, and the plantation index decreased 44.93 points to 7,014.07.
However, the energy index gained 3.61 points to 848.65.