KUALA LUMPUR: The FBM KLCI slumped on Monday as investors sold down on equities ahead of the country’s full lockdown starting tomorrow.
The key index fell as much as 25.97 points in early trade before rebounding to end the morning session 15.99 points loewr at 1,578.45.
Twent-five out of the 30 FBM KLCI-linked counters were in the red amid the heavy sell-off. On the broader market, there were 867 decliners versus 185 gainers.
Trading turnover was heavy to the tune of 4.2 billion shares valued at RM2.1bil amid the frenetic selling.
“We expects a negative bias tone on the broader market over the total lockdown.
“However, investors may focus on vaccine or pharmaceutical-related stocks amid the ongoing vaccination programme,” said Malacca Securities Research.
It added that resistance is set around 1,600-1,610 while suport is pegged to 1,550-1,555.
Kenanga Research expects the market to return to a dowtrend following last week’s positive momentum.
“From a charting perspective, the key FBMKLCI may give back last week’s gains as the benchmark index’s further progress is expected to be blocked by a descending trendline that stretches back to mid-December last year.
“With the resumption of the negative momentum, we reckon the FBMKLCI will probably back off from the 1,600-psychological mark (which is our immediate resistance hurdle) and slide towards our first support threshold of 1,550,” it said.
Among the heavyweights, banks slid into the red on expectation of further headwinds to the economic recovery.
Public Bank fell seven sen to RM4.20, Maybank dropped six sen to RM8.14, Hong Leong Bank shed 3 sen to RM18.24 and CIMB slid 10 sen to RM4.25.
In gloves, Hartalega
fell 19 sen to RM9.01, SUpermax dropped eight sen to RM4.16 and Top Glove added six sen to RM5.15.
Other laggards included Tenaga Nasional sliding seven sen to RM9.92 and IHH Healthcare dropping four sen to RM5.30.
Top actives over the broader market were HB Global up 3.5 sen ot 32.5 sen, Jetson down 2.5 sen to 56 sen and MPay up one sen to 24 sen.
Serba Dinamik was under the investor spotlight as KPMG flagged some audit issues relating to its FY2020 financials. Its share price hit limit down at the opening bell, losing 30% of its value to RM1.13 on the back of 26 million shares traded.
Investors are rushing for the exits as at last check, the sell queue on the counter was clogged with orders of over 250 million shares.
In Asian markets, investors struggled to keep a rally alive amid profit-taking.
Japan’s Nikkei fell 1.1% and South Korea’s Kospi was flat. In China, the main market slid 0.2% while Hong Kong’s Hang Seng dropped 0.5%. Australia’s ASX200 lost 0.2%.
