Bursa Malaysia ends lower
KUALA LUMPUR: Bursa Malaysia ended lower today on lack of buying momentum.
At the close, the key FTSE Bursa Malaysia KLCI (FBM KLCI) was 1.42 points easier at 1,860.08, after moving between 1,859.98 and 1,867.98 during the day.
It opened 2.71 points higher at 1,864.21 from Friday's close of 1,861.50.
On the broader market, losers outpaced gainers 513 to 479 with 407 counters unchanged, 496 untraded and 64 others suspended.
Volume decreased to 2.72 billion units worth RM2.74 billion from Friday's 3.55 billion units worth RM2.68 billion.
Inter-Pacific Securities Sdn Bhd Head of Research Pong Teng Siew said the weaker local market was due to last minute sell-down, particularly in Genting Bhd and British American Tobacco Malaysia.
"Genting performance has been reasonable in the week before mid-February and retreated a little bit of late. We could see some profit-taking activities in the counter," he told Bernama.
Genting Bhd fell 18 sen to RM8.92 and British American Tobacco Malaysia came off 70 sen to end the day at RM29.80.
Other heavyweights, Maybank jumped 14 sen to RM10.40, Public Bank advanced 10 sen to RM22.90, CIMB gained one sen to RM7.20, TNB eased two sen to RM15.62, while Petronas Chemicals and Axiata both fell six sen each to RM8.05 and RM5.59, respectively.
Among active counters, PUC and Green Packet inched up half-a-sen each to 27.5 sen and 49 sen, respectively, Sumatec was flat at eight sen, while AirAsia X and UMW Oil & Gas trimmed half-a-sen each to 43.5 sen and 32.5 sen.
LEAP market debutant Metro Heathcare rose seven sen to 30 sen.
The FBM Emas Index slipped 28.86 points to 13,284.92, the FBMT 100 Index trimmed 29.24 points to 12,976.15, the FBM Ace eased 24.27 points to 6,425.71, the FBM 70 shed 102.04 points to 16,270.51, and the FBM Emas Shariah Index was 67.07 points lower at 13,534.32.
Sector-wise, the Plantation Index gained 12.78 points to 8,074.27, the Finance Index jumped 95.97 points to 18,097.75 and the Industrial Index fell 32.36 points to 3,219.77.
The Main Market volume went down to 1.70 billion units worth RM2.54 billion from 2.33 billion units worth RM2.48 billion on Friday.
Volume on the ACE Market declined to 475.48 million shares worth RM101.24 million from 576.88 million shares valued at RM95.29 million.
Warrants' volume was lower at 532.20 million units from RM94.74 million against 63.12 million units worth RM96.77 million.
Consumer products accounted for 132.46 million shares traded on the Main Market, industrial products (391.50 million), construction (82.58 million), trade and services (733.69 million), technology (83.48 million), infrastructure (5.88 million), SPAC (3.16 million), finance (81.89 million), hotels (393,000), properties (134.61 million), plantations (31.42 million), mining (3.09 million), REITs (13.34 million), and closed/fund (nil). — Bernama