Bursa M'sia closes lower

KUALA LUMPUR: Bursa Malaysia closed lower today with gains in selected heavyweights offset by profit-taking in overbought blue chips and small-capitalised stocks.
At 5 pm, the FTSE Bursa Malaysia KLCI (FBM KLCI) ended 0.08% or 1.52 points lower at 1,856.35 from Wednesday's close of 1,857.87.
The key index opened 1.47 points firmer at 1,859.34 and moved between 1,854.50 and 1,860.56 throughout the day.
Towards the last hour of trading, the index turned choppy while trading in a tight range.
Market breadth was negative with 546 losers against 330 gainers, 384 counters unchanged, 651 untraded and 57 others suspended.
Volume declined to 1.88 billion units valued at RM2.09 billion from 2.08 billion units valued at RM1.81 billion on Wednesday.
A dealer said regional stock markets were mostly higher despite the lower close of Wall Street, which was dragged down by an extended slide in technology stocks.
"Profit-taking emerged ahead of Good Friday tomorrow, which is a public holiday in Singapore and Hong Kong.
"Amid uncertainty over global trade tensions and the health of the US technology sector, some investors chose to remain cautious over the short-term period," he added.
Among heavyweights, Maybank bagged two sen for RM10.52, Public Bank rose four sen to RM24.00 and Tenaga increased 36 sen to RM16.16.
CIMB lost one sen to RM7.16 and Petronas Chemicals gave up 10 sen to RM8.15.
Of the actively-traded stocks, Sapura Energy recovered half-a-sen to 50.5 sen, DBE was flat at 3.5 sen and Ekovest gained 4.5 sen to 31.5 sen.
The FBM Emas Index fell 7.34 points to 12,985.51 as the FBMT 100 Index eased 2.36 points to 12,785.68.But, the FBM Emas Shariah Index was 2.79 points higher at 13,162.64.
The FBM 70 recovered 24.89 points to 15,475.47, while the FBM Ace tumbled 100.89 points to 5,373.13.
Sector-wise, the Finance Index was down 6.32 points to 18,135.18 and the Plantation Index declined 21.37 points to 7,985.55 and the Industrial Index dipped 2.63 points to 3,226.62.
Main Market volume fell to 1.28 billion units worth RM1.96 billion from 1.44 billion units valued at RM1.70 billion on Wednesday.
Volume on the ACE Market decreased to 206.67 million shares worth RM45.39 million from Wednesday's 318.77 million shares valued at RM48.79 million.
Warrants' volume rose 388.65 million units worth RM80.44 million from 311.85 million units valued at RM64.93 million.
Consumer products accounted for 145.63 million shares traded on the Main Market, industrial products (314.87 million), construction (130.68 million), trade and services (472.77 million), technology (39.31 million), infrastructure (14.17 million), SPAC (8.36 million), finance (44.60 million), hotels (3.09 million), properties (80.01 million), plantations (22.12 million), mining (214,200), REITs (13.36 million) and closed/fund (5,000).
The physical price of gold as at 5.00pm stood at RM159.31 per gramme, down RM1.83 from RM161.14 at 5.00pm yesterday. — Bernama