At closing, the bellwether FBM KLCI ended 6.29 points, or 0.42% higher at 1.494.43. The index opened 2.95 points lower at 1,485.19 this morning.
Market breadth was overwhelmingly negative with 662 decliners, 371 gainers and 391 counters unchanged. There were 6.01 billion shares traded valued at RM3.05bmil.Malaysia posted a trade surplus of RM10.41bil in May 2020, rebounding from a deficit of RM3.63bil in April but overall exports were weaker than expected.
In May, exports totalled RM62.69bil, contracted by 25.5% while imports decreased by 30.4% to RM52.27bil. Major stock advancers among the component stocks included Top Glove, which gained 80 sen to RM15.70, IHH Healthcare added 24 sen to RM5.60, Hartalega rose 56 sen to RM12.50 and Axiata advanced 12 sen to RM3.58.
Laggards in the FBM KLCI component stocks included Petronas Chemicals, which fell 15 sen to RM6.20, Maybank declined nine sen to RM7.53, CIMB shed five sen to RM3.53 and Petronas Dagangan fell 40 sen to RM20.60.Brent crude was last traded at US$40.44 per barrel while US crude traded at US$38.00 per barrel.Hong Kong’s Hang Seng Index is down 1.01% to 24,301.28;South Korea’s Kospi fell 1.93% to 2,093.