Bursa Malaysia ends lower, tracking weaker regional bourses
KUALA LUMPUR: Bursa Malaysia closed lower today, in line with weaker regional markets as sentiment was dampened by the bearish China stock market, dealers said.
At the close, the benchmark FTSE Bursa Malaysia KLCI (FBM KLCI) ended 2.27 points lower at 1,721.27 from Wednesday's close of 1,723.54.
The index opened 0.12 of-a-point easier at 1,723.42 and moved between 1,720.59 and 1,728.18 throughout the day.
A dealer said major Asian bourses were lower today, weighed by a strong pullback on the China stock market on signs of tighter liquidity.
The Shanghai Composite Index fell 2.26% to 3,418.98, Hong Kong's Hang Seng declined 0.99% to 29,707.94 and Singapore's ST Index lost 0.32% to 3,418.95.
Among heavyweights, Maybank and Petronas Chemicals were flat at RM9.21 and RM7.30 respectively.
TNB lost two sen to RM14.84, Public Bank eased four sen to RM20.32 and Sime Darby shed six sen to RM8.93.
Of actives, PUC slipped half-a-sen to 21 sen and CSL lost one sen to 2.5 sen while Trive Property was flat at seven sen.
Bumi Armada added two sen to 78.5 sen and Orion IXL gained one sen to 13 sen.
Market breadth was negative with losers outnumbering gainers 445 to 433 while 394 counters were unchanged, 614 untraded and 33 others suspended.
Volume decreased to 2.08 billion units worth RM1.86 billion from Wednesday's 2.23 billion units worth RM2.6 billion.
On the scoreboard, the FBM Emas Index rose 5.57 points to 12,432.47, the FBMT 100 Index increased 5.99 points to 12,088.07 and the FBM Ace went up 3.81 points to 6,430.99.
The FBM Emas Shariah Index garnered eight points to 12,892.03 and the FBM 70 Index jumped 88.56 points to 15,444.43.
Sector-wise, the Finance Index lost 5.88 points to 15,987.5, the Plantation Index edged down 9.37 points to 7,946.59 and the Industrial Index was 8.30 points lower at 3,130.72.
The Main Market volume eased to 1.20 billion units worth RM1.71 billion from Wednesday's 1.44 billion units worth RM2.46 billion.
Volume on the ACE Market expanded to 629.45 million shares worth RM118.21 million from yesterday's 544.78 million shares worth RM115.68 million.
Warrants volume increased to 244.42 million units worth RM34.63 million from 238.24 million units worth RM29.97 million previously.
Consumer products accounted for 101.53 million shares traded on the Main Market, industrial products (318.4 million), construction (57.08 million), trade and services (436.84 million), technology (144.88 million), infrastructure (4.89 million), SPAC (590,000), finance (25.65 million), hotels (991,600), properties (100.29 million), plantations (11.24 million), mining (10,000), REITs (5.08 million), and closed/fund (3,500). — Bernama