With a recent price peak of 1,590 set in June, the FBM KLCI tested the resistance in active trading yesterday before ending the day slightly lower.
At midday today, the FBM KLCI was down 2.76 points to 1,580.49. Trading volume remained robust with 4.9 billion shares traded valued at RM2.69bil.
Global market sentiment was dampened on Friday as the growth of new US coronavirus cases accelerated to new records. Investors also took the opportunity to take some money off the table following the impressive rally earlier in the week.
Asian markets were a seas of red with China's benchmark index and Hong Kong's Hang Seng falling by 1% and 1.2% respectively. Japan's Nikkei was down 0.4%.
With no end in sight to the Covid-19 pandemic, rubber glove makers embarked on a new leg of its rally. Kossan jumped 94 sen to RM12.62, Supermax gained 86 sen to RM13.30, Top Glove rose 44 sen to RM21.62 and Hartalega
added 42 sen to RM17.02.Other leading gainers included Dufu Technology
climbing 27 sen to RM6.12 and Pentamaster rising 15 sen to RM5.96.Declining stocks included F&N down 64 sen to RM32.16, Carlsberg slipping 20 sen to RM25.15 and Aeon Credit
dropping 15 sen to RM9.56.Of actives, Dnex was up four sen to 25.5 sen, Trive lost 0.5 sen to one sen and PDZ was unchanged at 19 sen.
The esclating coronavirus situation in the US led to worried that the country would re-enter lockdown, sending oil prices sharply lower in Thursday's session.
Crude oil prices continued to fall on Friday, with Brent slipping 29 cents to US$42.06 a barrel and WTI crude dropping 35 cents to US$39.27 a barrel.
In currencies, the ringgit was down 0.14% against the US dollar at 4.2685. it rose 0.25% against the pound sterling at 5.3737 and was flat against the Singapore dollar at 3.0624.