Bursa Malaysia ends lower on profit-taking

KUALA LUMPUR: Bursa Malaysia ended on a negative note today due to profit-taking and mostly in the index-linked heavyweights, dealers said.
The benchmark FTSE Bursa Malaysia KLCI (FBM KLCI) fell by 14.69 points to 1,736.95 from Monday's close of 1,751.64.
The index opened 7.19 points easier at 1,743.73 and moved between 1,732.93 and 1,744.39 throughout the trading session session.
On the broader market, losers outpaced gainers 577 to 318 with 411 counters unchanged, 562 counters untraded and 23 others suspended.
Total volume increased to 3.17 billion shares worth RM2.90 billion from Monday's 2.4 billion shares worth RM2.16 billion.
Affin Hwang Investment Bank Vice-President/Head of Retail Research, Datuk Dr Nazri Khan Adam Khan, said the performance of the FBM KLCI which bucked the overnight performance of Wall Street, was normal, as investors wished to lock in profits before the start of the new year.
"I also believe that uncertainty over the upcoming general elections might also be a factor as selling pressure has been seen as ongoing for the past few months," he told Bernama.
He said the ringgit's performance against the US dollar and corporate earnings was not a reason for the lower local bourse, as both were going strong.
Nazri Khan also said that investors remained on the sidelines on expectations of an interest rate increase by Bank Negara Malaysia.
Of the heavyweights, Maybank eased one sen to RM9.49, Tenaga slipped four sen to RM14.90, Public Bank lost 20 sen to RM20.50, but Petronas Chemicals was four sen higher at RM7.49.
The list of actively-traded stocks included Diversified Gateway Solutions which improved 3.5 sen to 12 sen, with Netx and Sapura Energy each flat at four sen and 73.5 sen respectively, while PUC fell half-a-sen to 31.5 sen.
The FBM Emas Index slid 59.96 points to 12,510.86, the FBMT100 Index declined 59.33 points to 12,180.03 and the FBM Emas Syariah Index was 38.75 points lower at 12,849.04.
However, the FBM 70 was 71.75 points firmer at 15,485.04, but the FBM Ace was down 46.78 points to 6,353.84.
On a sectoral basis, the Industrial Index fell 15.60 points to 3,145.73, the Finance Index dipped 70.58 points to 16,476.34 and the Plantation Index was 31.36 points easier at 7,790.12.
The Main Market volume improved to 1.60 billion units worth RM2.64 billion compared with 1.36 billion units valued at RM1.95 billion on Monday.
Volume on the ACE Market rose to 1.32 billion shares worth RM206.07 million from 828.80 million shares, valued at RM166.19 million.
Warrants volume improved to 215.47 million units worth RM46.16 million from 180.88 million units valued at RM36.46 million on Monday.
Consumer products accounted for 70.65 million shares traded on the Main Market, industrial products (411.94 million), construction (51.64 million), trade and services (582.22 million), technology (165.72 million), infrastructure (13.91 million), SPAC (490,000), finance (59.21 million), hotels (513,300), properties (138.59 million), plantations (43.70 million), mining (41,000), REITs (69.36 million), and closed/fund (31,400).
The physical price of gold as at 5pm stood at RM160.32 per gramme, up 58 sen from RM159.74 at 5pm yesterday. — Bernama