Bursa Malaysia eases on profit-taking

KUALA LUMPUR: Bursa Malaysia ended on easier note today on profit-taking for the third consecutive day, following losses in selected heavyweights including TNB and BAT, dealers said.
At 5pm, the FTSE Bursa Malaysia KLCI (FBM KLCI) finished 5.14 points lower at 1,775.57 against yesterday's close of 1,780.71.
The key index, which opened 0.40 of-a-point lower at 1,780.31, moved between 1,773.66 and 1,782.09 throughout the day.
A dealer said selected trade and service as well as banking counters were down but gains in some blue-chips like Petronas Dagangan, MISC, Public Bank and HLFG helped lifted the key index to finish above the 1,760-point level.
"There are also losses in second-liners on profit-taking.
"The investor sentiment now was affected by the pressure on oil prices due to worries on global supply glut after several key producers increases supply which in contrast with the compliance between Organization of the Petroleum Exporting Countries (OPEC) and non-OPEC oil producers to cut the output," he said.
He said this has dampened the manufacturing, transportation and consumers sectors.
The top losers were BAT which declined RM1.18 to RM43.80, SAM fell 38 sen to RM7.52, Petron erased 36 sen to RM7.34, Hengyuan deducted 30 sen to RM5.15, Hume Industries decreased 17 sen to RM2.17 and TNB lost 14 sen to RM14.18.
Of the top gainers, Petronas Dagangan rose 55 sen to RM24.78, Dutch Lady gained 34 sen to RM58.40, Time Dotcom added 27 sen to RM9.68, Ajinomoto improved 22 sen to RM22.80 and HLFG expanded 16 sen to RM17.30.
Among the most active counters, Hibiscus Petroleum lost 2.5 sen to 39 sen, AirAsia slid six sen to RM3.11, Maybank shed five sen to RM9.59.
Public Bank rose six sen to RM20.38 and Dialog was one sen higher at RM1.93.
On the scoreboard, losers led gainers by 631 to 284 while 357 counters were unchanged, 517 untraded and 22 others were suspended.

Total volume fell to 1.69 billion units worth RM2.41 billion from 1.81 billion units valued at RM2.18 billion yesterday.

The FBM Emas Index lost 42.21 points to 12,615.76, FBMT 100 Index slipped 39.22 points to 12,263.12 and the FBM Emas Shariah Index was down 37.85 points to 12,829.86.

The FBM 70 declined 61.75 points to 14,904.60 and the FBM Ace was 58.00 points lower at 6,135.64.

The Finance Index fell 9.35 points to 16,823.72, Plantation Index decreased 29.66 points to 7,927.72 and the Industrial Index was 2.98 points higher at 3,271.68.

The Main Market turnover was higher at 1.19 billion units worth RM2.33 billion from Tuesday's 1.11 billion units worth RM2.08 billion.

Volume on the ACE Market fell to 237.19 million shares valued at RM50.22 million from 485.95 million shares valued at RM75.03 million yesterday.

Warrants firmed to 249.07 million units worth RM24.90 million from 199.37 million units worth RM20.90 million on Tuesday.

Consumer products accounted for 67.37 million shares traded on the Main Market, industrial products (300.45 million), construction (83.89 million), trade and services (437.26 million), technology (63.36 million), infrastructure (21.01 million), SPAC (2.84 million), finance (73.47 million), hotels (499,600), properties (108.42 million), plantations (25.52 million), mining (65,000), REITs (8.35 million) and closed/fund (17,800).
The physical price of gold as at 5pm stood at RM166.29 per gramme, up 17 sen from RM166.12 at 5pm yesterday. — Bernama