Bursa Malaysia lower at close

KUALA LUMPUR: Bursa Malaysia closed lower on Monday following a long weekend on lack of buying momentum amid mixed performance on regional bourses, dealers said.
At the close, the key FTSE Bursa Malaysia KLCI (FBM KLCI) fell 1.90 points to end at 1,769.14 against last Thursday's close of 1,771.04.
Earlier, the benchmark index opened 0.35 of-a-point better at 1,771.39.
Market breadth was negative as losers overwhelmed gainers 626 to 259 with 349 counters unchanged, 611 untraded and 23 others suspended.
Volume fell to 2.46 billion units worth RM2.36 from 3.25 billion units worth RM2.41 billion last Thursday.
The market was closed on Friday for Awal Muharram holiday.
A dealer said market sentiment was quiet earlier as market participants digested the outcome of the national elections in Germany and New Zealand over the weekend.
"Later in the day we saw selling activities in the market but overall the losses in the exchange were capped by higher oil prices, with Petronas-linked companies seen supporting the index," the dealer said.
Regionally, Japan's Nikkei 225 rose 0.50% to 20,397.58 boosted by gains in most automakers and finance counters, while the South Korea's Kospi reversed earlier gains to end 0.35% lower at 2,380.40.
On the home front, Petronas Gas soared 42 sen to RM18.44, Petronas Chemicals added five sen to RM7.35, while Petronas Dagangan was four sen better at RM24.26.
On the scoreboard, the FBM Emas Index was 23.20 points lower at 12,602.52, the FBMT 100 Index went down 18.927.74 points to 12,276.94, the FBM Emas Syariah Index retreated 10.18 points to 12,821.64, the FBM 70 fell 44.88 points to 15,046.87 and the FBM Ace decreased 71.00 points to 6,581.34.
Sector-wise, the Plantation Index declined 30.90 points to 7,886.37, the Finance Index lost 117.64 points to 16,641.10 but the Industrial Index went up 6.94 points to 3,227.49.
For other heavyweights, Maybank fell seven sen to RM9.78, Tenaga slipped four sen to RM14.40, Public Bank added two sen to RM20.60 and IHH was two sen better at RM5.82.
Among active counters, Hibiscus gained 1.5 sen to 63 sen, Trive Property improved half-a-sen to 16.5 sen, CIMB eased four sen to RM6.31 and Netx was flat at 5.5 sen.
The Main Market volume decreased to 1.78 billion shares worth RM2.25 billion from last Thursday's 2.44 billion shares worth RM2.27 billion.
Volume on the ACE Market narrowed to 525.63 million units valued at RM95.42 million versus 599.62 million units valued at RM122.37 million.
Warrants declined to 156.62 million units worth RM17.28 million from 207.07 million units worth RM19.04 million.
Consumer products accounted for 69.20 million shares traded on the Main Market, industrial products (533.95 million), construction (64.00 million), trade and services (704.55 million), technology (148.52 million), infrastructure (8.84 million), SPAC (13.18), finance (100.31 million), hotels (3.3 million), properties (107.88 million), plantations (14.51 million), mining (51,000), REITs (7.5 million), and closed/fund (8,300).
The physical price of gold as at 5pm stood at RM168.87 per gramme, down 46 sen from RM169.33 at 5pm last Thursday. — Bernama