Weak sentiment continues to weigh on KLCI at midday

Worries over a new strain of Covid-19, coupled with weak oil prices, continued to weigh on investor sentiment, dragging Bursa Malaysia to end the morning session broadly lower.

At the lunch break, the benchmark FBM KLCI was 16.94 points or 1.03% lower at 1,630.95 after moving between 1,627.22 and 1,647.36 throughout the morning session.

The overall market breadth was negative with losers overtaking gainers 989 to 232, while 375 counters were unchanged, 541 untraded and 17 others suspended.

Volume stood at 5.45 billion units worth RM2.65 billion.

Malacca Securities Sdn Bhd said in a note that the negative sentiment from the new virus strain might spill over to stocks on the local front.

The research firm expected trading interest to revolve around construction and building materials as well as property sector amid the potential Kuala Lumpur-Singapore High Speed Rail (HSR) news flow coupled with the rising building material prices.

“Also, we expect the vaccine distribution candidate may surface as the health minister stated that [the government] will try to get all the vaccine supplies by the first quarter of 2021,” it said.

Among the heavyweights, Malayan Banking Bhd (Maybank) and IHH Healthcare Bhd fell 11 sen each to RM8.37 and RM5.64 respectively, Public Bank Bhd lost 18 sen to RM20.48, Tenaga Nasional Bhd (TNB) erased 10 sen to RM10.58 and Petronas Chemicals Group Bhd (PetChem) declined 21 sen to RM7.33.

However, Top Glove Corp Bhd rose one sen to RM6.63 and Hartalega Holdings Bhd gained six sen to RM12.56.

Among the actives, Techna-X Bhd trimmed two sen to 14.5 sen, Iris Corp Bhd added one sen to 40 sen, Bintai Kinden Corp Bhd increased 9.5 sen to 76 sen, and Vivocom Intl Holdings Bhd fell nine sen to 89 sen.

On the index board, the FBM Emas Index was 132.55 points lower at 11,716.27, the FBMT 100 Index lost 128.07 points to 11,486.1, the FBM Emas Shariah Index erased 106.12 points to 13,180.42, the FBM 70 contracted 201.01 points to 14,957.31, and the FBM ACE reduced 45.22 points to 10,433.23. 

The Industrial Products and Services Index shrank 2.69 points to 172.27, the Plantation Index gave up 47.26 points for 7,310.93 and the Financial Services Index dropped 224.0 points to 15,159.58.

Meanwhile, Bursa in a statement announced the transfer of Greatech Technology Bhd's shares from the ACE Market to the Main Market under the technology sector.

In a statement, it said the transfer would take effect on Dec 28, 2020 at 9am.