KUALA LUMPUR, Aug 2 — Bursa Malaysia extended last week’s losses to end lower today, with the key index remaining below the 1,500-point level as weak market sentiment hurt investors’ risk appetite, dealers said.
The local market moved slightly higher in the morning trade on mild bargain-hunting, but retreated after an hour into trading as market sentiment turned sluggish. Bank Islam Malaysia Bhd economist Adam Mohamed Rahim said the FBM KLCI bucked the regional trend whereby other Asian markets were recoding gains amid a rebound in China shares as sentiment improved following the sell-off sparked by the regulatory crackdown on the technology sector last week.
Adam said Sime Darby Plantation led decliners in the index-linked counter with a 2.9 per cent drop, while the Bursa Malaysia Energy index was the biggest loser among other sectoral indexes after ending 2.3 per cent lower in line with the softer Brent crude oil price. Among the actives, Resintech rose 14 sen to 73.5 sen after 113.36 million shares changed hands, Greenyield picked up 8.0 sen to 38 sen, while Serba Dinamik and Saudee shed 1.5 sen each to 38 sen and 12 sen respectively.
Main Market volume increased marginally to 2.15 billion worth at RM2.0 billion from Friday’s 2.14 billion shares valued at RM2.17 billion.