KL shares lower in sync with Asian bourses

KUALA LUMPUR: Bursa Malaysia closed lower today in line with Asian bourses as traders turned cautious ahead of the US Federal Reserve's (Fed) policy meeting which will indicate the interest rate's direction.

The benchmark FTSE Bursa Malaysia KLCI (FBM KLCI) was down by 12.13 points to 1,842.93, after fluctuating between 1,842.84 and 1,855.46 throughout the day.

The dealer said the two-day meeting that begin yesterday would be wrapped up today (US time), giving signal to the global stock markets.

"Investors were hoping that the Fed would not be in a hurry to raise interest rate, which might slow down market performance," he said.

The Finance Index depreciated 71.79 points to 16,273.37, Plantation Index fell 17.96 points to 7,664.51 and the Industrial Index eased 6.00 points to 3,401.50.

The FBM Emas Index dropped 64.16 points to 12,663.727.82, FBMT100 Index went down 69.10 points to 12,354.64, and the FBM Emas Syariah Index declined 65.03 points to 13,184.44.

The FBM Ace rose 54.05 points to 7025.49 while the FBM 70 was 29.44 points lower at 13,644.24.

There were 410 gainers and 407 losers, with 324 counters unchanged, 667 counters untraded and 42 others suspended.

Total volume decreased to 1.59 billion shares worth RM1.9 billion from Tuesday's 2.17 billion shares worth RM2.15 billion.
Among actives, Vsolar rose half-a-sen to 25.5 sen while both Bioaplha and Frontken were 1.5 sen higher at 39.5 sen and 27.5 sen, respectively.

DGB fell one sen to 10.5 sen.

Of the heavyweights, Maybank eased four sen to RM9.30, TNB lost 14 sen to RM14.46, Public Bank was down 10 sen to RM19.70 and Axiata slipped seven sen to RM6.83.

Main Market volume decreased to 945.81 million units worth RM1.74 billion from Tuesday's 1.39 billion units worth RM1.97 billion.

Turnover on the ACE Market fell to 564.17 million shares valued at RM138.86 million versus 706.92 million shares valued at RM166.96 million previously.

Warrants eased to 74.17 million units worth RM13.54 million against 75.27 million units worth RM14.42 million on Tuesday.

Consumer products accounted for 67.41 million shares traded on the Main Market, industrial products (180.92 million), construction (79.82 million), trade and services (382.54 million), technology (77.26 million), infrastructure (23.82 million), SPAC (10.59 million), finance (43.42 million), hotels (2.25 million), properties (63.32 million), plantations (10.67 million), mining (0), REITs (3.76 million) and closed/fund (19,500).

The physical price of gold as at 5pm stood at RM133.62 per gramme, up 72 sen from RM132.90 at 5pm yesterday. – Bernama