Kl shares close lower
KUALA LUMPUR: Bursa Malaysia ended lower today, weighed by selling activities on small-capitalised stocks amid bearish external sentiment, dealers said.
At the close, the benchmark FTSE Bursa Malaysia KLCI (FBM KLCI) lost 3.3 points to 1,718.36 from Friday's close of 1,721.66.
The index opened 2.11 points stronger at 1,723.77 and moved between 1,717.45 and 1,725.35 throughout the day.
On the scoreboard, the FBM Emas Index erased 34.26 points to 12,382.66, the FBMT 100 Index lost 28.66 points to 12,034.62 and the FBM Ace fell 183.42 points to 6,408.16.
A dealer said the market was, for almost the entire trading session, derailed by selling activities on small-cap counters as traders trimmed their position ahead of the year-end.
"It's a year-end season where people having more incentives to take profits," he said.
He said the sentiment was further worsened by bearish external factors, among others, uncertainty in the German administration after talks of a coalition government hit an impasse.
However, he believes the reaction is only a knee-jerk reaction as the ongoing political episodes in Germany is not expected to derail Europe's largest economy.
Among heavyweights, Maybank and Petronas Chemicals eased one sen each to RM9.21 and RM7.28, respectively, TNB lost two sen to RM14.82, Public Bank shed six sen to RM20.32, while Sime Darby added two sen to RM8.99.
Of the actives, TH Heavy Engineering added 1.5 sen to 13 sen.
Trive Property, Sumatec, Diversified Gateway and DGB Asia were flat at eight sen, 5.5 sen, 8.5 sen and 14 sen, respectively.
Sector-wise, the Finance Index shed 76.11 points to 15,975.26, the Plantation Index edged down 19.9 points to 7,888.63, but the Industrial Index was six points higher at 3,143.97.
Market breadth was negative with losers outnumbering gainers 610 to 239 while 460 counters were unchanged, 567 untraded and 21 others suspended.
Volume fell to 1.97 billion units worth RM2.14 billion from 2.21 billion units worth RM2.22 billion on Friday.
The Main Market volume was flat at 1.20 billion units worth RM2.01 billion from Friday's 1.20 billion units worth RM2.03 billion.
Volume on the ACE Market narrowed to 543.14 million shares valued at RM106.4 million from 778.47 million shares valued at RM163.47 million previously.
Warrants volume eased to 222.64 million units worth RM22.61 million from 224.39 million units worth RM25.33 million.
Consumer products accounted for 40.36 million shares traded on the Main Market, industrial products (286.78 million), construction (58.35 million), trade and services (461.98 million), technology (209.76 million), infrastructure (3.69 million), SPAC (355,000), finance (38.33 million), hotels (1.65 million), properties (87.68 million), plantations (12.93 million), mining (16,600), REITs (6.56 million), and closed/fund (5,000).
The physical price of gold as at 5pm stood at RM166.73/g, up 76 sen from RM165.97 at 5pm last Friday. – Bernama