Bursa Malaysia ends lower on profit-taking
KUALA LUMPUR: Bursa Malaysia ended broadly lower today, reversing yesterday's gains as profit-taking emerged mostly in key heavyweights and blue-chips.
At 5pm, the benchmark FTSE Bursa Malaysia KLCI (FBM KLCI) fell 10.60 points to 1,759.93 after fluctuating between 1,759.46 and 1,768.61 throughout the day.
Key heavyweights, Maybank and TNB, lost two sen each to RM9.63 and RM14.12, respectively, and Public Bank dropped four sen to RM20.28.
BAT topped the losers' list, dipping 62 sen to RM42.26 followed by Hong Leong Financial which eased 54 sen to RM16.44.
A dealer said the local market's performance was in line with most regional markets on weak external factors, affected by the USA-North Korea geopolitical jitters, as well as, oil prices which inched down after a temporary climb a day earlier.
Losers outpaced gainers 644 to 209 while 372 counters were unchanged, 566 untraded and 31 others were suspended.
Turnover fell to 1.30 billion shares, worth RM1.54 billion, from 1.48 billion shares, worth RM1.69 billion, recorded yesterday.
Other heavyweights, CIMB eased five sen to RM6.556 and Petronas Chemiclas dropped six sen to RM7.09 while Sime Darby increased one sen to RM9.54.
Of actives, Hubline and AT were flat at six sen and 4.5 sen, respectively,
Dagang Nexchange increased one sen to 59.5 sen while Ancom decreased nine sen to 90.5 sen.
The FBM Emas Index slid 80.98 points to 12,550.77, FBMT 100 Index lost 79.08 points to 12,188.07 and the FBM Emas Shariah Index eased 86.08 points to 12,766.25.
FBM Ace erased 17.67 points to 6,528.30 and the FBM 70 tumbled 118.09 points to 14,937.83.
On a sectoral basis, the Plantation Index weakened 94.76 points to 7,871.99 while the Finance Index slipped 79.04 points to 16,762.59 and the Industrial Index gave up 17.40 points to 3,243.29.
The Main Market turnover contracted to 903.08 million shares, worth RM1.46 billion, from 1.05 billion shares, worth RM1.63 billion, trade on Thursday.
Warrants decreased to 114.21 million units, valued at RM12.62 million, from 170.91 million units, worth at RM22.06 million.
Volume on the ACE Market fell to 260.47 million shares, worth RM60.33 million, from 299.71 million shares, valued at RM802.76 million, transacted yesterday.
Consumer products accounted for 50.88 million shares traded on the Main Market, industrial products (233.57 million), construction (71.09 million), trade and services (351.85 million), technology (38.34 million), infrastructure (5.79 million), SPAC (301,100), finance (48.85 million), hotels (4.35 million), properties (82.70 million), plantations (12.33 million), mining (0), REITs (2.99 million) and closed/fund (6,000).
The physical price of gold as at 5pm stood at RM163.23 per gramme, down 50 sen from RM163.73 at 5pm yesterday. — Bernama