KUALA LUMPUR: Bursa Malaysia started the trading day with positive momentum, but by midday, the market saw a downturn and lost its earlier gains.
The FBM KLCI declined 1.61 points, or 0.1% to 1,676.58 after hitting an intra-morning high of 1,684.06.
There were 479 stocks in decline and 429 in positive territory while 494 were unchanged with 1.78 billion shares worth RM1.4bil changing hands.
Malaysian Pacific Industries
was the top decliner on Bursa Malaysia, losing 68 sen to RM29.12. Nestle fell 30 sen to RM103.30, Kuala Lumpur Kepong declined 22 sen to RM21.32 and Central Global slid 17 sen to 89 sen.
Go Hub Capital rose 26 sen to RM1.49, Dutch Lady added 24 sen to RM30.94, Ajinomoto gained 20 sen to RM14.70 and Tenaga Nasional advanced 20 sen to RM14.76.
Rakuten Trade noted that the market’s undertone may have turned cautious as reflected by the decline in daily volume traded as traders were mostly side-lined.
“Therefore, we expect the index to possibly hover within the 1,680-1,690 range today.
“Meanwhile, we believe stocks accumulation by foreign funds to persist especially after a rather decent 2Q24 corporate earnings season that may instigate some upgrades in earnings growth for CY2024,” the research house said.
Separately, Malacca Securities expects the heavy selling in small caps seen in August to be overdone, with lower liners likely to recover in September while heavyweights may take a breather.
“Given the stronger ringgit performance over the past few months, sectors such as consumer, construction, building materials, and property may
benefit. We also favour stocks with strong fundamentals and growing earnings in their recent results,” it added.
