At 3.07pm, the benchmark FTSE Bursa Malaysia KLCI (FBM KLCI) fell 9.29 points to 1,565.61 from 1,574.90 yesterday. — Picture by Hari Anggara
KUALA LUMPUR, Oct 3 ― Bursa Malaysia stayed in the red on lack of buying interest led by the Financial Services Index amid uncertainty in the local economic landscape, said an analyst.
At 3.07pm, the benchmark FTSE Bursa Malaysia KLCI (FBM KLCI) fell 9.29 points to 1,565.61 from 1,574.90 yesterday.
The index opened 2.94 points weaker at 1,571.96.
On the broader market, losers outpaced gainers 513 to 216, while 388 counters were unchanged, 858 untraded and 19 others suspended.
Turnover amounted to 1.56 billion shares worth RM773.26 million.
An analyst said investors were cautious ahead of the Budget 2020 tabling coupled with the remark made by Prime Minister Tun Dr Mahathir Mohamad this morning on the possibility of reviving the Goods and Services Tax (GST) to boost government monetary reserves.
“Although the reintroduction of GST may stir uncertainties, it will be temporary as the GST is known to be a more effective tax measure that has been implemented in many countries,” the analyst said.
She said talk about the reimplementation of the GST has been around for a while since oil prices have been decreasing from US$80 (RM335) a barrel, on which the previous budget was based.
Benchmark Brent crude is currently trading at around US$57 per barrel at the time of writing.
Among heavyweights, Maybank and Tenaga slid two sen each to RM8.51 and RM13.58 respectively, PBBank dropped 38 sen to RM19.32, while PChem rose two sen to RM7.48 and IHH was flat at RM5.64.
Of the most active, Sumatec reduced half-a-sen to 1.5 sen, while VSolar and Armada eased half-a-sen each to eight sen and 31.5 sen respectively.
For the top losers, Nestle lost 70 sen to RM144.50 and DLady dropped 60 sen to RM58.90, while PBBank was listed as the third top loser.
The FBM Emas Index dropped 68.56 points to 11,081.37, the FBMT 100 Index was down 68.47 points at 10,912.57 and the FBM Emas Shariah Index slid 57.96 points to 11,661.42.
The FBM 70 slumped 101.89 points to 13,784.25 and the FBM Ace fell 0.96 point to 4,515.08.
Sector-wise, the Financial Services Index was 111.81 points lower at 15,111.50, the Plantation Index eased 35.59 points to 6,633.74 and the Industrial Products & Services Index was 0.41 point weaker at 152.16. ― Bernama