Bursa Malaysia ends lower

KUALA LUMPUR: Bursa Malaysia ended lower on Monday, weighed down by losses in the finance stocks as well as profit-taking in the broader market after recent gains, said dealers.
At 5pm, the benchmark FTSE Bursa Malaysia KLCI (FBM KLCI) ended at an intra-day low of 1,760.03, down 7.05 points, or 0.4%, from Friday's close of 1,767.08, after opening 0.82 of-a-point higher at 1,767.9.
Earlier, the key index touched an intraday high of 1,768.10.
Finance counters, Maybank and Hong Leong both lost 10 sen to RM9.54 to RM15.70, respectively, Public Bank shed 26 sen to RM20.28, CIMB went down nine sen to RM6.55 and RHB Bank eased three sen to RM5.

A dealer said the market experienced a temporary knee-jerk reaction to the announcement that Public Bank Bhd Non-Executive Chairman Tan Sri Dr Teh Hong Piow would relinquish his position on Jan 1, 2019.
"This fuels speculation of further consolidation in the banking industry," he told Bernama.
On the broader market, losers thumped gainers by 585 to 309, with 347 counters unchanged, 586 untraded and 53 others suspended.
Volume improved to 1.94 billion units worth RM2.58 billion from 1.64 billion units worth RM2.20 billion on Friday.
Of the heavyweights, Maxis gained three sen to RM5.65, Petronas Chemicals was flat at RM6.95 and TNB declined four sen to RM14.12.
Among actives, Key Alliance edged down half-a-sen to three sen, Kronologi Asia rose 9.5 sen to 80.5 sen, AT Systematization was flat at 4.0 sen, Glotec eased one sen to 5.5 sen and Lotte Titan fell RM1.43 to RM4.70.
The FBM Emas Index decreased 39.03 points to 12,552.60, FBM Emas Syariah Index was 12.04 points lower at 12,717.64, FBMT 100 Index fell 37.42 points to 12,195.19, the FBM Ace dipped 85.01 points to 6,531.63 and the FBM 70 edged down 2.87 points to 14,970.6.
Sector-wise, the Finance Index lost 126.45 points to 16,663.93 and the Industrial Index was 7.91 points weaker at 3,266.1. The Plantation Index grew 16.95 points to 7,856.74.
The Main Market turnover declined to 1.12 billion shares worth RM2.42 billion from 1.64 billion shares worth RM2.20 billion on Friday.
Warrants surged to 231.94 million units valued at RM15.92 million from 96.68 million valued at RM11.73 million.
Volume on the ACE Market increased to 576.35 million shares worth RM144.95 million from 462.87 million shares worth RM109.68 million previously.
Consumer products accounted for 84.78 million shares traded on the Main Market, industrial products (287.48 million), construction (73.69 million), trade and services (347.79 million), technology (68.91 million), infrastructure (10.96 million), SPAC (1.89 million), finance (82.37 million), hotels (6.14 million), properties (134.50 million), plantations (12.34 million), mining (1,000), REITs (8.69 million) and closed/fund (31,800).
The physical price of gold as at 5pm stood at RM168.65 per gramme, up RM1.08 from RM167.57 at 5pm last Friday. — Bernama