KUALA LUMPUR: The FBM KLCI dove in morning trade as fears mounted that the government would impose a full lockdown following the spike in Covid-19 infections.
It was announced yesterday that the government would decide on whether to impose a stricter MCO following a National Security Council meeting today.
At 12.30pm, the country’s key index slumped 21.42 points to 1,553.9 with 28 of the 30 counters in the red.
Reflecting the strong bearish sentiment, the index broke below the 200-day simple moving average and headed for a fresh support at 1,550.
The heavy selling took broader market turnover to 4.97 billion shares valued at RM2.28bil.
Financial heavyweights dragged on the index with Maybank falling four sen to RM8.23, Public Bank shed five sen to RM4.15 and CIMB dropped 11 sen to RM4.14. Hong Leong Bank was unchanged at RM17.58.
Glove counters were also not spared the sell-off. Top Glove fell nine sen to RM5.28, Hartalega
shed 17 sen to RM9.57 and Supermax lost five sne to RM4.80.
In telcos, Axiata skidded 15 sen to RM3.40 while Maxis fell four sen to RM4.53 and Digi gave up six sen to RM4.05.
Among top actives on Bursa Malaysia, Focus was up one sen to seven sen, VSolar was flat at 2.5 sen and Sedania jumped 14.5 sen to 75 sen.
In Asian markets, anxieities over runaway inflation in the US eased amid a drop in oil prices, although markets remained shaky given the high valuations.
Japan’s Nikkei rose 0.8% while South Korea’s Kospi fell 0.3%.
China’s composite index dropped 0.5% and Hong Kong’s Hang Seng slid 0.2%. Australia’s ASX200 was up 0.1%.
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