Profit-taking drags Bursa Malaysia to close lower
KUALA LUMPUR: Bursa Malaysia closed lower today on heightened profit-taking activities, as investors cashed out amid the sideways trading pattern, dealers said.
The benchmark FTSE Bursa Malaysia KLCI (FBM KLCI) ended 2.8 points lower at 1,757.13 from Friday's 1,759.93 after fluctuating between 1,754.57 and 1,760.44 throughout the day.
The key index opened 0.83 of-a-point easier at 1,759.1 this morning.
Losers thumped gainers by 556 to 294, with 351 counters unchanged, 590 untraded and 28 others suspended.
Turnover rose to 1.66 billion shares, worth RM1.51 billion, from 1.30 billion shares, worth RM1.54 billion, recorded last Friday.
A dealer said the FBM KLCI was likely to move lower with immediate support seen at the 1,755 points level.
"A fall below the 1,750-points threshold level will see the index having a a further downside bias, however, the market might react well to the external environment and improving crude oil prices and Wall Street's overnight performance," she told Bernama.
Among heavyweights, Maybank declined one sen to RM9.62, CIMB contracted two sen to RM6.53, Petronas Chemicals lost 20 sen to RM6.89 while both TNB and Sime Darby were flat at RM14.12 and RM9.54, respectively.
Meanwhile, Public Bank rose four sen to RM20.32 and Maxis improved two sen to RM5.51.
Of the actives, market debutant, Advancecon gained 21.5 sen to 84.5 sen, MLABS perked 6.5 sen to 25.5 sen while Netx and Borneo Oil were flat at 4.5 sen and 11 sen, respectively.
The FBM Emas Index fell 29.84 points to 12,520.93 and FBMT 100 Index lost 28.51 points to 12,159.56, and the FBM Emas Syariah Index eased 28.15 points to 12,738.1.
The FBM 70 declined 69.4 points to 14,868.43 while the FBM Ace improved 48.51 points to 6,576.81.
The Finance Index trimmed 6.94 points to 16,755.64 while the Industrial Index garnered 12.6 points to 3,255.89 and the Plantation Index advanced 3.69 points to 7,875.68.
The Main Market turnover expanded to 1.09 billion shares, worth RM1.41 billion, from 903.08 million shares, valued at RM1.46 billion, traded on Friday.
Warrants increased to 117.89 million units, valued at RM14.74 million, from 114.21 million units, worth RM12.62 million.
Volume on the ACE Market fell to 416.2 million shares, worth RM78.53 million, from 260.47 million shares, worth RM60.33 million, transacted on Friday.
Consumer products accounted for 49.77 million shares traded on the Main Market, industrial products (224.9 million), construction (186.62.42 million), trade and services (432.5 million), technology (37.43 million), infrastructure (9.55 million), SPAC (299,200), finance (43.11 million), hotels (8.44 million), properties (90.27 million), plantations (11.15 million), mining (10,400), REITs (3.9 million) and closed/fund (nil).
Advancecon Holdings Bhd was the latest debutant in the market today, opened at 74 sen and by end of the day rose 21.5 sen to 84.5 sen, with 131,645,100 shares transacted.
The physical price of gold as at 5pm stood at RM161.57 per gramme, down RM1.66 from RM163.23 at 5pm last Friday. — Bernama