Bursa follows Wall St, key markets deeper into the red

KUALA LUMPUR: Bursa Malaysia fell in early trade on Friday as investor sentiment was rattled by the worsening Covid-19 outbreak which had battered Wall Street and key Asian markets.

At 9.09am, the FBM KLCI was down 17.73 points or 1.18% to 1,487.86. Turnover was 373.02 million shares valued at RM175.71mil. Decliners beat advancers 509 to 54 or 10 losers to nearly one gainer and 154 counters were unchanged.

Global share markets headed for the worst week since the darkest days of the financial crisis in 2008 as investors braced for the coronavirus to morph into a pandemic and derail world economic growth, Reuters reported.

In Asia, MSCI’s regional index excluding Japan lost 0.6%. Japan’s Nikkei gave up 2.5% on rising fears the Olympics planned in July-August may be called off due to the coronavirus. Australian shares dropped 3% to a six-month low while South Korean shares shed 1.4%.

At Bursa on Thursday, foreign funds continued to reduce their shareholdings in local equities with net selling of RM291.5mil but local institutions were net buyers at RM175.8mil and retail investors at RM115.7mil.

Nestle fell the most, down RM2.80 to RM139.20, F&N RM1.26 to RM30.04, Dutch Lady 84 sen to RM43, Carlsberg 80 sen to RM32.78, Heineken 80 sen to RM26.70 and BAT 40 sen lower at RM14.12.

Among the plantations, PPB Group lost 54 sen to RM17.76, Genting Plantations 43 sen to RM9.95 and KL Kepong 40 sen to RM21.94.

AIRASIA fell three sen to RM1.08.

UMW gained five sen to RM3.28, Top Glove four sen to RM5.73 and Solarvest three sen to RM1.23.

Source: TheStar