Bursa Malaysia ends lower

KUALA LUMPUR: Bursa Malaysia ended the day lower with the benchmark index easing 1.49 points on mild selling in line with regional peers, dealers said.
At 5pm, the FTSE Bursa Malaysia KLCI (FBM KLCI) stood at 1,669.50 compared with Friday's close of 1,670.99.
After opening 1.47 points weaker at 1,669.52 this morning, the barometer index was traded between 1,665.41 and 1,671.46 throughout the day.
Losers led gainers 484 to 324 while 372 counters were unchanged, 510 untraded and 17 others suspended.
Volume fell to 1.64 billion units worth RM1.57 billion compared with 1.88 billion units worth RM1.95 billion last Friday.
A dealer said regional markets were broadly lower, ahead of the Organisation of the Petroleum Exporting Countries meeting this week to discuss a possible output cut.
On the home front, the local bourse was traded easier today as traders remained sidelines, keeping their eyes on the US presidential debate between Donald Trump and Hillary Clinton early on Tuesday in Asian time zones.
"There were also some profit-taking activity by market players.
"But we expect to see the local bourse picking up by end of this week on window-dressing as it is the last week of September, and also the end of the third quarter," the dealer said.
On the scoreboard, the FBM Emas Index fell 18.91 points to 11,791.31, the FBMT100 Index decreased 19.07 points to 11,492.72 and the FBM Emas Syariah Index was 54.89 points lower at 12,428.83.
The FBM 70 depreciated 54.90 points to 13,809.14 but the FBM Ace was up by 20.55 points to 5,272.41.
Sector-wise, the Finance Index jumped 108.97 points to 14,358.39, the Plantation Index perked 5.79 points to 7,964.13, but the Industrial Index was lower 16.84 points at 3,127.34.
Of heavyweights, TNB and Petronas Chemicals were flat at RM14.40 and RM6.70, respectively, while Maybank rose two sen to RM7.69 and Public Bank jumped 24 sen to RM19.98.
Among actives, Hiap Teck Venture and Perisai Petroleum rose 3.5 sen each to to 33.5 sen and 15 sen, respectively, Vivocom Intl added one sen to 21 sen and Kinsteel improved 1.5 sen to seven sen.
Main market turnover fell to 1.17 billion shares valued at RM1.48 billion versus 1.22 billion shares worth RM1.84 billion previously.
The ACE Market volume fell to 236.40 million units valued at RM34.54 million from 276.79 million units valued at RM40.34 million.
Warrants contracted to 222.86 million shares worth RM45.94 million compared with 383.39 million shares worth RM71.76 million.
Consumer products accounted for 39.21 million shares traded on the Main Market, industrial products (510.88 million), construction (53.45 million), trade and services (375.45 million), technology (33.08 million), infrastructure (11.14 million), SPAC (19.30 million), finance (44.88 million), hotels (224,100), properties (61.03 million), plantations (19.39 million), mining (30,000), REITs (5.9 million), and closed/fund (176,500).
The physical price of gold as at 5pm stood at RM171.81 per gramme, up 65 sen from RM171.16 at 5pm yesterday. — Bernama