Bursa Malaysia closes lower ahead of long weekend

KUALA LUMPUR: Bursa Malaysia closed lower today as traders trimmed their positions ahead of the long weekend, a dealer said.
At the close, the key FTSE Bursa Malaysia KLCI (FBM KLCI) fell 2.54 points to end at 1,771.04 against yesterday's close of 1,773.58.
Earlier, the benchmark index opened 1.87 points higher at 1,775.45.
Market breadth was negative as losers led gainers 473 to 385 with 392 counters unchanged, 589 untraded and 24 others suspended.
Volume rose to 3.25 billion units worth RM2.41 billion from Wednesday's 3.14 billion units worth RM2.38 billion.
A dealer said market sentiment remained bearish after the US Federal Reserve announced plans to reduce its huge balance sheet and indicated another rate hike in December, coupled with the long weekend ahead locally.
"With another extended weekend in the offing, there appears to be little reprieve and we see market conditions remaining tepid with many participants unwilling to hold on to their open positions," he said.
The market will be closed tomorrow for Awal Muharram celebration.
On the scoreboard, the FBM Emas Index was 18.40 points lower at 12,625.72, the FBMT 100 Index went down 17.74 points to 12,276.94, the FBM Emas Syariah Index retreated 18.40 points to 12,625.72, the FBM 70 fell 22.07 points to 15,091.75 and the FBM Ace decreased 16.46 points to 6,677.62.
Sector-wise, the Plantation Index decreased 8.07 points to 7,917.27 and the Industrial Index went down 11.81 points to 3,220.55.
The Finance Index went up 16.359 points to 16,758.74.
For heavyweights, Petronas Chemicals added one sen to RM7.30 while Maybank and Sime Darby were flat at RM9.85 and RM9.13 respectively.
TNB lost six sen to RM14.44 and Public Bank eased two sen to RM20.58.
Among active counters, Hibiscus lost 3.5 sen to 61.5 sen and UMW O&G and Sino Hua-an slipped half-a-sen each to 34.5 sen and 23 sen respectively.
Trive added three sen to 16 sen while KNM was flat at 28.5 sen.
The Main Market volume decreased to 2.44 billion shares worth RM2.27 billion from yesterday's 2.54 billion shares worth RM2.29 billion.
Volume on the ACE Market expanded to 599.62 million valued at RM122.37 million from Wednesday's 382.15 million valued at RM65.70 million.
Warrants contracted to 207.07 million units worth RM19.04 million from 216.88 million units worth RM18.72 million previously.
Consumer products accounted for 60.69 million shares traded on the Main Market, industrial products (882.29 million), construction (85.27 million), trade and services (952.56 million), technology (233.37 million), infrastructure (4.89 million), SPAC (969,000), finance (80.48 million), hotels (5.06 million), properties (101.03 million), plantations (26.54 million), mining (24,000), REITs (7.19 million), and closed/fund (7,000).
The physical price of gold as at 5pm stood at RM169.33 per gramme, down RM1.81 from RM171.14 at 5pm yesterday. — Bernama