Bursa closes easier on sell-offs in small cap, 2nd and 3rd liners
KUALA LUMPUR: Bursa Malaysia closed easier today on sell-offs in small-capitalised, second- and third-liner stocks as investors cashed-out for short-term gains, dealers said.
The benchmark FTSE Bursa Malaysia KLCI (FBM KLCI) ended 2.1 points weaker at 1,755.03 from Monday's 1,757.13.
The barometer index opened 2.51 points lower at 1,754.62 and fluctuated between 1,752.74 and 1,758.27 throughout the day.
Losers trounced gainers 713 to 198, with 346 counters unchanged, 527 untraded and 33 others were suspended.
Turnover rose to 1.73 billion shares, worth RM2.07 billion, from 1.66 billion shares, worth RM1.51 billion, recorded on Monday.
A dealer said the FBM KLCI would likely test the 1,750-points support level.
However, if the index moves lower, there will be further downside bias.
“Trading by investors today were balanced as the significant sell-offs in small capitalised shares was more or less equivalent to the demand for big capitalised stocksr,” she told Bernama.
Among heavyweights, Maybank, Petronas Chemicals and TM rose one sen each to RM9.63, RM6.99 and RM6.50, respectively, while Public Bank and MISC were flat at RM20.30 and RM7.39, respectively.
Meanwhile, TNB and Sime Darby contracted two sen each to RM14.10 and RM9.52, respectively.
Of actives, market debutant, Lotte Chemical Titan finished at RM6.38, down 12 sen from its opening price of RM6.50 per share while MLABS rose 3.5 sen to 29 sen .
Asia Bioenergy was half-a-sen higher at 14 sen while CIMB eased 14 sen to RM6.39 and Advancecon contracted five sen to 79.5 sen.
The FBM Emas Index fell 31.98 points to 12,488.94, the FBMT 100 Index lost 23.92 points to 12,135.64 and the FBM Emas Syariah Index eased 29.06 points to 12,709.03.
The FBM 70 declined 64.73 points to 14,803.69 while the FBM Ace improved 55.54 points to 6,521.27.
The Finance Index decreased 85.88 points to 16,669.76, the Industrial Index trimmed 2.68 points to 3,253.21 and the Plantation Index declined 13.89 points to 7,861.79.
The Main Market turnover expanded to 1.09 billion shares, worth RM1.95 billion, from Monday's 1.09 billion shares, worth RM1.41 billion.
Warrants increased to 172.05 million units, valued at RM17.14 million, from 117.89 million units, valued at RM14.74 million, traded yesterday.
Volume on the ACE Market rose to 424.89 million shares, worth RM92.08 million, from 416.2 million shares, worth RM78.53 million, transacted yesterday.
Consumer products accounted for 84.98 million shares traded on the Main Market, industrial products (298.68 million), construction (134.91 million), trade and services (329.36 million), technology (34.87 million), infrastructure (7.47 million), SPAC (4.57 million), finance (71.45 million), hotels (6.69 million), properties (103.85 million), plantations (13.72 million), mining (2,000), REITs (2.72 million) and closed/fund (19,300).
The physical price of gold as at 5pm stood at RM161.96 per gramme, up 39 sen from RM161.57 at 5pm yesterday. — Bernama