KUALA LUMPUR (Jan 19): Another wave of selling resulted in more companies hitting limit-down on Friday amid the suspension of margin accounts by brokers, although the wider market rebounded after three straight days of losses.
At noon market break, six companies have touched limit-down. This include YNH Property Bhd, Rapid Synergy Bhd, and Sawarak Consolidated Industries Bhd (SCIB) — the freeze in the share price decline of these counters was lifted on Friday morning — as well as a new casualty Heitech Padu Bhd, a loss-making information and communication technologies service provider.
Jentayu Sustainables Bhd, on the other hand, struck limit-down for the third day in a row, while Silver Ridge Holdings Bhd witnessed limit-down for the second day.
As of Friday, at least three brokers have decided to suspend non-cash upfront trading for over a dozen counters due to sharp trading movements in the counters.
The wider market bucked the trend, with the FBM KLCI up 0.26% to 1,482.97 points after three straight days of losses.
The FBM Small Cap Index also recouped the morning session’s losses to close 0.09% higher after opening down 0.94% earlier, while the ACE Index remained in the red at the noon market break, down 0.55%.
The worst-hit stocks in 2024 remain among the biggest losers at Friday’s noon market close, led by Rapid Synergy (down RM1.18 to RM2.78), YNH (down 36.5 sen to 85.5 sen), Jentayu (down 30 sen to 50 sen), Silver Ridge (down 30 sen to 54.5 sen), SCIB (down 24.5 sen to 29 sen), Heitech Padu (down 21.5 sen to 85.5 sen), Tanco Holdings Bhd (down 14 sen to 37 sen), and Mercury Securities Group Bhd (down 10 sen to 89 sen).
Subsequently, Bursa Malaysia suspended short-selling activities for SCIB, Jentayu, and Tanco during Friday's morning session until the following trading day on Monday (Jan 22) at 8.30am.
Other worst-hit counters have yet to pare losses, including Leform Bhd (down one sen to 16 sen), APB Resources Bhd (down four sen to RM1.96), and Mestron Holdings Bhd (down 1.5 sen to 30 sen).
Artroniq Bhd, which saw a rebound after touching limit-down for two days in a row, emerged as the sole counter with a slim increase of three sen in its share price to 26 sen.
Across Bursa Malaysia, gainers led decliners with 482 stocks in the green while 396 stocks traded lower. Some 407 counters traded unchanged.
Bursa Malaysia and Securities Commission in a joint statement said that “the Malaysian stock market fundamentals remain strong and there should not be any cause of concern”, in light of recent sell-off in the penny stocks.
While the two entities said they are closely monitoring the market conditions, they pointed out that “the affected stocks constituted around 0.17% of the total market capitalisation and 8.3% of total traded value for the year”.
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