Malaysian Shares End in Red Bucking Regional Gains; Mi Technovation Rises 4%
Malaysian shares ended in the red on Thursday, erasing yesterday's gains. Investors remained wary despite regional gains as the US oil prices dropped to their lowest level since the outbreak of the U.S.-Iran conflict.The FTSE Bursa Malaysia KLCI, the main gauge of Malaysian stocks, shed 1.28 points to end 0.7% lower at 1,663.82.In economic news, Malaysia's leading index, which anticipates economic direction in the near term, ticked up 1.25% month over month in April, according to the Department of Statistics Malaysia. The pace of growth exceeded the Trading Economics forecast of a 0.1% growth.Meanwhile, Malaysia's coincident index, which measures current economic performance, rose 2.6% in April to 131.6 points from 128.3 in the same month of the previous year.In corporate news, shares of Mi Technovation (KLSE:MI) gained over 4% on close after it applied to list its semiconductor materials business on the Singapore Exchange's Mainboard through an initial public offering of Mi Material.Eckem's (KLSE:ECKEM) initial public offering was oversubscribed by 8.09 times ahead of its ACE Market listing, reflecting solid demand from retail investors. The formulator of specialty industrial chemicals received 5,152 applications for 284 million shares worth 34.1 million ringgit, compared with 31.3 million shares allocated to the Malaysian public.
