BURSA Malaysia continues to be in red as the country plunges into unprecedented political instability, which dragged down all indices at mid-morning due to heavy selling. 

As of 11.05am, FBM Bursa Malaysia KLCI (FBM KLCI) was 1.28% or 19.27 points lower at 1,486.3151, after opening at 20.69 points lower at 9am. 

On the broader market, losers led gainers 904 to 74 with 190 counters unchanged, 875 untraded and 65 suspended. 

Turnover spiked to 1.92 billion shares worth RM1.12 billion compared with 346.67 million shares worth RM161.85 million two hours ago. 

Selling was eminent in the energy, construction, technology, logistics counters and the ACE market as well as small and medium-sized caps stocks. 

Energy and construction were the worst-hit counters as the fate of ongoing as well as the newly announced and revived infrastructure projects hang in the balance due to the ongoing political crisis.

An analyst said this is because if snap elections are to take place, there is a high probability the announced projects will be reviewed and the timeline for their completion delayed.

As for key stocks listed on the FBM KLCI, she said the outflow taking place now refers to the withdrawal of foreign as well as retail investors. 

“However, we need to understand that whenever the market rebounds, these stocks will be on active buying as it has the government’s backing interest,” she said. 

Meanwhile, the Conference of Rulers is holding a meeting today with a view to resolving the country’s political impasse.

On the key index performance, all 30 recorded a decline with Maybank shedding eight sen to RM8.44, Tenaga Nasional declining 12 sen to RM12.28, MISC as it slipped 15 sen to RM7.61, Petronas Chemicals slid 17 sen to RM5.63, PPB as it shed 22 sen to RM18.08 and Maxis lost 10 sen to RM5.41. 

On the index board, all were painted in the red with FBM emas index declined 174.90 points to 10,509.74, the FBMT 100 index decreased 160.05 points to 10,329.16 and the FBM ACE shed 227.08 points to 5,358.04.

The FBM Emas shariah index slipped 204.49 points to 11,150.29 and the FBM 70 declined 308.05 points to 12,920.86. – Bernama, February 28, 2020.