Bursa Malaysia ends lower
KUALA LUMPUR: Bursa Malaysia ended lower today, pressured by selling in heavyweight stocks and tracking the mixed performances of its regional peers, dealers said.
At 5pm, the benchmark FTSE Bursa Malaysia KLCI (FBM KLCI) fell 2.25 points to end at 1,736.80 compared with Wednesday's close of 1,739.05.
After opening 1.16 points better at 1,740.21 in the morning, the index moved between 1,734.93 and 1,740.84 throughout the day.
Market breadth, however, was positive with gainers led losers by 421 to 383, with 419 counters unchanged, 652 untraded and 23 others suspended.
Volume rose to 2.53 billion worth RM2.13 billion from 2.46 billion units worth RM1.89 billion on Wednesday.
A dealer said South-East Asian shares were mostly higher today but major Asian stocks were mostly lower, taking the cue from the weaker overnight Wall Street close which retreated from its record highs.
On the local front, Bursa Malaysia saw short-term technical rebound during the early session on the back of bargain hunting and amid the oversold signals, but succumbed to selling pressure in heavyweight stocks.
Regionally, Japan's Nikkei 225 added 0.15% to 21,739.78, Hong Kong's Hang Seng fell 0.36% to 28,202.38, South Korea's Kospi eased 0.48% to 2,480.63 and the Singapore Straits Times Index rose 0.25% to 3,352.22.
Of the heavyweights, Public Bank added two sen to RM20.48, Petronas Chemicals declined five sen to RM7.40, while Maybank, TNB and Sime Darby were flat at RM9.24, RM14.34 and RM9.08 respectively.
Among active counters, PUC rose half-a-sen to 18 sen, Trive Property added 1.5 sen to 17.5 sen, NetX Holdings was up a sen to six sen, Inta Bina increased 3.5 sen to 38 sen and MNC Wireless fell half-a-sen to 9.5 sen.
The FBM Emas Index fell 21.03 points to 12,469.70, FBMT100 Index eased 1.85 points to 12,110.52, FBM Emas Shariah Index declined 19.36 points to 12,846.22 and the FBM 70 dropped 50.34 points to 15,152.99.
The FBM Ace rose 55.45 points to 6,893.61.
Sector-wise, the Plantation Index was 13.15 points better at 7,939.44, Industrial Index was 3.94 points lower at 3,193.43 while the Finance Index fell 18.96 points to 16,241.69.
The Main Market narrowed to 1.50 billion shares worth RM1.95 billion from 1.69 billion shares worth RM1.76 billion on Wednesday.
Volume on the ACE Market increased to 862.19 million units valued at RM157.50 million versus yesterday's 643.01 million units valued at RM112.22 million.
Warrants volume rose to 138.03 million shares worth RM13.40 million from 120.97 million shares worth RM11.45 million previously.
Consumer products accounted for 174.10 million shares traded on the Main Market, industrial products (306.35 million), construction (99.89 million), trade and services (420.91 million), technology (277.17 million), infrastructure (5.64 million), SPAC (17.56 million), finance (41.30 million), hotels (329,300), properties (111.01 million), plantations (29.31 million), mining (30,100), REITs (14.99 million), and closed/fund (23,800).
The physical price of gold as at 5pm stood at RM168.24 per gramme, up 73 sen from RM167.51 at 5pm yesterday. — Bernama