KUALA LUMPUR – Bursa Malaysia continued to trade lower in the afternoon, with its key index struggling to maintain its lead above the 1,600-level due to heavy selling in the rubber glove counters.

At 3.07pm, the benchmark FTSE Bursa Malaysia KLCI (FBM KLCI) fell 20.19 points to 1,607.02.

The overall market breadth remained negative with losers surpassing gainers 992 to 289, while 288 counters were unchanged, 513 untraded and 12 others suspended.

Volume stood at 5.42 billion units worth RM4.36 billion.

A dealer said the positive developments on the Covid-19 vaccines – slated to be ready for distribution by the first quarter of this year – pushed investors to cut their holdings on rubber glove stocks.

Hartalega contracted RM1.60 to RM10.54, Top Glove lost 48 sen to RM5.64 and Supermax gave up 37 sen to RM5.65.

These stocks were the biggest losers among the 30-index constituents on Bursa Malaysia, dragging the composite index down by a combined 19.99 points.

As for other heavyweights, Maybank fell 11 sen to RM8.35, Public Bank shed eight sen to RM20.52, and Petronas Chemicals reduced 15 sen to RM7.28.

However, Tenaga rose 10 sen to RM10.52 and IHH Healthcare gained six sen to RM5.56.

Among the actives, Sapura Energy was flat at 12.5 sen, AT Systematization inched down half-a-sen to 18 sen, Dynaciate added one sen to 14 sen, Niche bagged two sen to 26 sen, while Borneo Oil gained half-a-sen to 4.5 sen.

On the index board, the FBM Emas Index was 153.93 points lower at 11,608, the FBMT 100 Index contracted 151.66 points to 11,350.33, the FBM Emas Shariah Index erased 204.17 points to 12,954.98, the FBM 70 weakened 234.43 points to 14,908.4, and the FBM ACE gave up 49.73 points for 10,684.96.    

The Plantation Index bagged 24.65 points to 7,327.49, while the Financial Services Index lost 99.38 points to 15,217.17 and the Industrial Products and Services Index shed 2.69 points to 175.42. –  Bernama, January 4, 2021

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