Bursa Malaysia ends mixed

KUALA LUMPUR: Bursa Malaysia closed mixed today amid mild support for selected heavyweights in the finance- and trade/services-related counters, a dealer said.
At 5pm, the FTSE Bursa Malaysia KLCI (FBM KLCI) finished 1.55 points higher at 1,847.94 from 1,846.39 at the close last Friday.
After opening 0.53 point better at 1,846.92 this morning, the index moved between 1,845.45 and 1,850.16 throughout the day.
Market breadth was negative as losers led gainers by 574 to 332 with 402 counters unchanged, 584 untraded and 28 others suspended.
Volume fell to 1.94 billion units worth RM1.68 billion from 2.87 billion units worth RM4.2 billion last Friday.
The dealer said this week the global stock markets, including Bursa Malaysia, would focus on the two-day Federal Open Market Committee, which would start tomorrow.
"Tomorrow all eyes will be on the Federal Reserve's new head, Jerome Powell, who took over from Janet Yellen in February, and he is expected to decide on US economy's strength and provide approach to the new policy.
"He is also expected to decide whether the interest rate would remain at 1.50% or 1.75%, an additional of 25 basis points," he said.
Among heavyweights, Public rose 10 sen to RM23.12, Tenaga inched up two sen to RM15.70 and CIMB was four sen better at RM7.26. Maybank was flat at RM10.32.
Of the active counters, Sapura Energy added one sen to 49 sen and Brahims improved 12 sen to 45 sen.
Netx was flat at 3.5 sen. PUC fell one sen to 19 sen.
The FBM Emas Index increased by 3.16 points to 13,036.80, FBMT 100 Index was 5.52 points to 12,787.59 and the FBM Emas Syariah Index slipped 19.82 points to 13,200.35.
The FBM 70 erased 10.84 points to 15,682.65 and the FBM Ace lost 7.16 points to 5,917.85.
Sector-wise, the Industrial Index declined 32.03 points to 3,238.70, Finance Index advanced 22.11 points to 18,060.29 and the Plantation Index improved 10.25 points to 7,966.75.
The Main Market volume decreased to 1.18 billion units worth RM1.56 billion from 2.04 billion units worth RM4.13 billion last Friday.
Volume on the ACE Market increased to 463.92 million shares valued at RM75.55 million from 385.94 million shares valued at RM73.67 million last week.
Warrants' volume eased to 290.26 million units worth RM43.05 million from 438.63 million units worth RM49.56 million previously.
Consumer products accounted for 73.82 million shares traded on the Main Market, industrial products (240.66 million), construction (86.77 million), trade and services (593.45 million), technology (28.49 million), infrastructure (3.89 million), SPAC (10.79 million), finance (38.56 million), hotels (510,000), properties (75.82 million), plantations (15.55 million), mining (135,300), REITs (10.52 million), and closed/fund (0).
The physical price of gold as at 5pm stood at RM159.71 per gramme, down 63 sen from RM160.34 at 5pm last Friday. — Bernama