KUALA LUMPUR: Malaysia’s benchmark stock index ended another day in the red as investors reacted to a dearth of positive leads by cashing in on recent gains.
The FBM KLCI fell 5.47 points or 0.4% to 1,531.51, closing below the 21-day simple moving average for the first time since Jan 2, 2024.
AmBank weighed heavily on the blue chips after diving 21 sen to RM3.99 on the back of news that Australia’s ANZ Group is disposing a 16.5% stake in the bank via a block trade at RM3.85 per share.
In investors’ sights is US Federal Reserve chair Jerome Powell’s semiannual monetary policy testimony to the House committee later today and a senate panel on Thursday, where he is expected to reiterate caution in implementing interest rate cuts this year.
Tomorrow, Bank Negara will announce its decision following the conclusion of its monetary policy committee meeting.
Bursa Malaysia’s lacklustre performance in March thus far comes in tandem with growing anxiety in Asian markets, underpinned by the disappointment over Beijing’s perceived lack of action in propping up the world’s second-largest economy.
Underpinning the domestic market’s negative close was 588 counters in the red, against 422 rising counters and 439 unchanged.
Nearly all the market’s sectors were in the red, with energy being the biggest loser (-1.3%) followed by technology dropping 0.9%, and transport and logistics sliding 0.5%.
The plantations sector was the sole winner, rising 0.6%, on the back of stocks such as TH Plantations, United Plantations and Sarawak Oil Palms .
Top actives of the day were Harvest Miracle down 1.5 sen to 12 sen, Velesto dropping two sen to two sen and Hong Seng sliding 0.5 sne to one sen.
At the close, there were a total of 3.65 billion shares traded for a value of RM2.67bil.