Bursa Malaysia ends lower
KUALA LUMPUR: Bursa Malaysia closed in the negative territory today amid profit-taking activities and floundering crude oil prices, a dealer said.
The benchmark FTSE Bursa Malaysia KLCI (FBM KLCI) closed 2.50 points weaker at 1,775.65 from yesterday's close of 1,77815.
Brent Crude was down 50 cents at US$51.15 (RM221) per barrel while US West Texas Intermediate (WTI) crude stood at US$48.15, down 51 cents, on rising crude oil inventories.
After opening 1.59 points better at 1,779.74 this morning, the benchmark index moved between 1,770.22 and 1,779.94 throughout the day.
On the broader market, losers outpaced gainers 473 to 417 with 400 counters unchanged, 470 untraded and 31 others were suspended.
Volume decreased to 3.45 billion units, valued at RM2.88 billion, from 3.51 billion units, valued at RM3.84 billion, recorded yesterday.
Sentiment in regional markets, including the local bourse were also affected by the bearish performance on Wall Street after President Donald Trump asked then-FBI Director James Comey to end a probe into his former security.
Among heavyweights, Petronas fell 66 sen to RM19.04, IOI Corp shed four sen to RM4.60, YTL shed one sen to RM1.52 while Hap Seng was flat at RM8.92.
As for actives, Priceworth International gained four sen to 29 sen, Globaltec Formation inched up half-a-sen to six sen while Netx inched-down half-a-sen to seven sen and Jag was flat at 15 sen.
The FBM Emas Index fell 9.35 points to 12,728.69, the FBMT100 Index decreased 8.31 points to 12,356.68 but the FBM Emas Syariah Index was 2.03 points better at 13,083.45.
The FBM 70 garnered 23.70 points to 15,368.74 but the FBM Ace declined 21.89 points to 6,470.43.
Sector-wise, the Finance Index shed 4.03 points to 16,404.91, the Plantation Index decreased 19.13 points to 8,103.28 and the Industrial Index fell 25.11 points to 3,268.33.
Main Market turnover narrowed to 2.28 billion units, worth RM2.71 billion, from 2.43 billion units, worth RM3.67 billion, recorded yesterday.
Volume on the ACE Market increased to 755.73 million units, valued at RM112.49 million, from 735.73 million units, valued at RM118.51 million, traded on Tuesday.
Warrants increased to 411.36 million units, valued at RM58.97 million, from yesterday's 337.12 million units valued at RM42.82 million.
Consumer products accounted for 95.54 million shares traded on the Main Market, industrial products (740.20 million), construction (252.94 million), trade and services (579.31 million), technology (190.04 million), infrastructure (25.67 million), SPAC (2.08 million), finance (70.60 million), hotels (2.49 million), properties (376.03 million), plantations (21.83 million), mining (2,100), REITs (4.57 million), and closed/fund (3,000).
The physical price of gold as at 5pm stood at RM167.19 per gramme, up RM1.47 from RM165.72 at 5pm yesterday. — Bernama