Bursa Malaysia ends marginally easier
KUALA LUMPUR: Bursa Malaysia finished marginally lower today as mild profit-taking emerged among selective heavyweight stocks, dealers said.
The benchmark FTSE Bursa Malaysia KLCI (FBM KLCI) fell just one point, or 0.06%, to end at 1,767.92, from Wednesday's close of 1,768.92, after opening 0.73 of-a-point lower at 1,768.19.
The index moved between 1,766.38 and 1,770.90 throughout the trading session.
On the broader market, losers matched gainers at 448 each, with 381 counters unchanged, 500 counters untraded and 53 others suspended.
Volume shed to 3.45 billion units worth RM2.77 billion from the 3.55 billion units worth RM3.13 billion recorded yesterday.
Among heavyweights, Maybank advanced six sen to RM9.54, TNB inched up two sen to RM13.86, while Public Bank and Sime Darby were both flat at RM19.96 and RM9.33, respectively.
The composite index was dragged down by Genting Malaysia Bhd which lost 19 sen to RM5.83, Genting Bhd declined 13 sen to RM9.83 and British American Tobacco (BAT) eased RM1 to RM45.
Losses in the three counters registered a combined total negative contribution of 3.23 points to the index.
Meanwhile, besides positive contribution from top-weighted Maybank, Petronas Gas was the leading mover supporting the key index, rising 34 sen to RM18.74.
Other leading movers were IHH Healthcare, which gained six sen to RM6.20, Hong Leong Financial was up 18 sen to RM16.70 and Axiata improved two sen to RM5.16.
Panasonic was the top gainer for the day, putting on 50 sen to RM34, while the top loser was BAT.
Actively traded stocks included Key Alliance, which eased half-a-sen to 6.5 sen, DNEX and Luster rose half-a-sen each to 60.5 sen and 14 sen, respectively, Iris was flat at 21 sen, while AirAsia X added one sen to 45 sen.
A dealer said local and regional markets took cue from Wall Street's weak overnight performance.
"Locally, after four consecutive sessions of rallies in index-linked counters, mild profit-taking set in, with buying interest now distributed on rotational plays to the second and low liner stocks," he added.
The FBM Emas Index added 3.12 points to 12,613.49, the FBMT100 Index advanced 3.73 points to 12,244.36, the FBM 70 surged 44.43 points to 15,010.27, the FBM Emas Syariah Index improved 20.59 points to 12,970.19, while the FBM Ace gained 11.67 points to 6,199.47.
Sector-wise, the Finance Index put on 37.63 points to 16,238.00, the Plantation Index climbed 21.78 points to 8,095.36, while the Industrial Index inched down 0.40 of-a-point to 3,227.47.
Main Market turnover eased to 2.20 billion units worth RM2.59 billion from 2.31 billion units worth RM2.93 billion on Wednesday.
Volume on the ACE Market shrank to 840.55 million shares worth RM134.88 million from yesterday's 974.60 million shares worth RM171.97 million.
Warrants rose to 391.62 million units worth RM39.82 million from 260.82 million units worth RM31.04 million.
Consumer products accounted for 130.71 million shares traded on the Main Market, industrial products (611.47 million), construction (156.26 million), trade and services (811.88 million), technology (124.80 million), infrastructure (27.41 million), SPAC (322,000), finance (84.81 million), hotels (2.51 million), properties (199.90 million), plantations (38.19 million), mining (10,000), REITs (13.80 million), and closed/fund (86,000).
The physical price of gold as at 5pm stood at RM170.94 per gramme, down seven sen from RM171.01 at 5pm yesterday. — Bernama