Bursa Malaysia ends on easier note

KUALA LUMPUR: Bursa Malaysia erased yesterday's gains to end easier today on profit-taking among heavyweights, mainly finance and trade & services-related stocks.
At 5 pm, the benchmark FTSE Bursa Malaysia KLCI (FBM KLCI) was down 12.49 points or 0.75% to end at 1,645.09, after opening 4.53 points lower at 1,653.05.
It moved between 1,653.05 and 1,641.75 throughout the day.
The bellwether index closed at 1,657.58 on Wednesday.
Losers led gainers 415 to 332, while 382 counters were unchanged, 574 untraded and seven others suspended.
Volume decreased to 1.39 billion shares worth RM1.62 billion from Wednesday's 1.69 billion shares valued at RM2.13 billion.
Hong Leong Investment Bank in a research note said investors were focusing on the release of key external economic data including from the US and China. "At the same time, investors are digesting the news that the Ministry of Finance has taken over selected assets of 1Malaysia Development Bhd (1MDB)," it said.
Among heavyweights, Maybank fell one sen to RM8.53, TNB added two sen to RM14.10, Public Bank eased 16 sen to RM18.76 and IHH Healthcare shed five sen to RM6.51.
Of the active stocks, Hiap Huat and MTouche Technology each gained half-a-sen to 12 sen and 16 sen respectively, Vivocom slid half-a-sen to 34 sen while SapuraKencana Petroleum rose three sen to RM1.62.
Among top losers, PPB fell 46 sen to RM15.64, Tasek Corporation declined 36 sen to RM15.00 while Lafarge, Carlsberg Brewery and Petronas Dagangan each dipped 18 sen to RM8.40, RM12.42 and RM23.56 respectively.
The FBM Emas Index lost 68.12 points to 11,486.59, the FBMT100 Index decreased 72.80 points to 11,179.29 and the FBM Emas Syariah Index shed 57.04 points to 12,060.35.
The FBM 70 was 41.01 points lower at 12,909.17 and the FBM Ace fell 6.74 points to 5,649.51.
Sector-wise, the Finance Index slipped 64.97 points to 14,380.34, the Industrial Index shrank 17.33 points to 3,147.74 and the Plantation Index declined 73.09 points to 7,548.13.
Main Market turnover fell to 949.51 million units worth RM1.55 billion from Wednesday's 1.18 billion units valued at RM2.04 billion.

The ACE Market turnover advanced to 339.10 million units worth RM55.40 million from 298.66 million units valued at RM64.65 million recorded on Wednesday.
Warrants decreased to 110.32 million units worth RM16.22 million from 219.44 million units valued at RM23.78 million previously.
Consumer products accounted for 135.60 million shares traded on the Main Market, industrial products (208.78 million), construction (75.21 million), trade and services (338.81 million), technology (56.55 million), infrastructure (6.82 million), SPAC (8.78 million), finance (33.25 million), hotels (1.49 million), properties (60.29 million), plantations (15.95 million), mining (21,500), REITs (7.87 million) and closed/fund (18,300).
The physical price of gold as at 5pm stood at RM159.03 per gramme, up two sen from RM159.01 at 5pm yesterday. — Bernama