FBM KLCI reverses early gains to end at intraday low

KUALA LUMPUR: The FBM KLCI pared its gains and settled in negative territory on Tuesday, following a long weekend, as the market’s earlier positive momentum faded with shifting investor sentiment.

At 5pm, the 30-stock index fell 1.19 points, or 0.07% to 1,606.13, its intraday low.

On Bursa Malaysia, there were 766 losers, 480 gainers, and 455 counters that remained unchanged. Turnover stood at 5.93 billion shares valued at RM4.14bil.

The top decliner was PIE Industrial, which lost 33 sen to RM6.75. Kuala Lumpur Kepong fell 28 sen to RM20.22, Chin Hin declined 24 sen to RM3.34 and YTL Power gave up 21 seb to RM5.07.

Meanwhile, the top gainer on Bursa Malaysia was Mercury Industries, which gained 30 sen, or 34.88% to RM1.16 with 586,100 shares traded. Telekom Malaysia rose 29 sen to RM6.81, PETRONAS Gas added 24 sen to RM17.90 and KESM closed up 21 sen to RM7.62.

On the forex market, the ringgit was up[ 0.16% against the greenback to 4.7133 and up 0.17% against the Singapore dollar at 3.4811.

Elsewhere in the region, Japan’s Nikkei 225 rose 1%, Hong Kong’s Hang Seng Index closed down 0.11%, South Korea’s Kospi added 0.72%, Shanghai’s Composite Index gained 0.48% and Singapore’s Straits Times Index rose 0.1%.