KUALA LUMPUR: With the government set to place several parts of the Klang Valley under the enhanced movement control order (EMCO) to rein in the Covid-19 pandemic, most investors continued to stay cautious due to the ensuing economic fallout.
However, it was not all doom and gloom with tech-related stocks rallying on positive outlook while some others attracted speculative buying.
Genetec hit limit-up, with Hightec riding on the coattails. Following suit was SKB Shutters
in the absence of strong positive news.
At 5pm, the FBM KLCI was down by 0.88 of a point or 0.06% to 1, 533.35 – a near low for this year. The 30-stock index closed down at 1,532.63 on Wednesday.
Turnover was 5.51 billion shares valued at RM2.87bil. The broader market was again weaker with 529 losers, 406 gainers and 456 counters unchanged.
The EMCO, which will be imposed in places with high Covid-19 infection rates, has worried investors.
FMM president Tan Sri Soh Thian Lai appealed to the government to immediately move into Phase 2 of the NRP to prevent permanent and irreversible damage to business and the economy.
He said the manufacturing sector is already severely impacted by business closures of the non-essential sectors and the reduced capacity operations of the essential sectors.
Breweries Carlsberg fell 52 sen to RM21.56 and Heineken 26 sen to RM23 as they had to temporarily halt their operations.
While chip maker MPI fell 36 sen to RM39.10, Genetec surged RM3 to RM13.02 and Hightec 70 sen to RM3.06. Kobay rose 21% or 59 sen to RM3.41, Vitrox added 16 sen to RM14.96, Widetec eight sen to RM2.92, UWC eight sen to RM5.27 and JF Tech six sen higher at RM1.32.
SKB Shutters also hit limit-up, adding 36 sen to RM1.58 in the absence of any positive news.
Serba Dinamik was the most active with 542 million shares done, gaining 0.5 sen to 38.5 sen, SCIB six sen to 81 sen, SCIB-WA three sen to 28.5 sen and Serba Dinamik-WA unchanged at 9.5 sen.KPower added 1.5 sen to 92 sen.
Othe decliners were OMH, which fell 16 sen to RM2.74, Genting Plantation 15 sen to RM7.18 and Hengyuan 14 sen to RM4.71
Among the glove makers, Hartalega lost 12 sen to RM7.02, Kossan 11 sen to RM3.08 and Supermax eight sen to RM3.23.
Genting Plantation fell the most among the plantation stocks, down 15 sen to RM7.18, Batu Kawan and NSOP 10 sen each to RM19.32 and RM3, Sime Plantation eight sen to RM3.98. However, IOI Corp rose three sen to RM3.82 and KLK two sen to RM20.32.
Among the banks and financial services companies, RHB Bank lost two sen to RM5.39, Public Bank and AmBank one sen each to RM4.11 and RM2.95 while CIMB and Maybank were flat at RM4.64 and RM8.11. Also unchanged was CIMB at RM4.64.
However, HLFG rose 18 sen to RM18, MPHB Cap eight sen to RM1.56 while HL Bank and Affin gained two sen each to RM18.82 and RM1.76.
