Bursa Malaysia ends easier in line with regional markets

KUALA LUMPUR: Bursa Malaysia closed lower today in line with the underperformance of regional markets coupled with investors'uncertainties over the country's new government policies, dealers said.
At the close, the benchmark FTSE Bursa Malaysia KLCI (FBM KLCI) was 21.56 points lower at 1,775.84 from Friday's close of 1,797.4.
The index opened 3.95 points weaker at 1,793.45 and moved between 1,774.4 and 1,793.54 throughout the day.
Putra Business School's Business Development senior lecturer and manager Dr Ahmed Razman Abdul Latiff opined that foreign funds were still offloading Malaysian equities given the uncertainty over new government policies.
"This was particularly highlighted with the recent revelation of the country's RM1 trillion debt.
"In addition, the weaker ringgit against the US dollar played a contributing role as well," he told Bernama here today.
Among other heavyweights, Maybank and TNB lost 26 sen each to RM10.00 and RM14.78, respectively, and Public Bank declined two sen to RM24.90.
Maxis rose four sen to RM5.78, Genting increased 18 sen to RM8.88 and Nestle was flat at RM147.00.
Among actives, Sapura Energy was seven sen lower at 62.5 sen, MyEG trimmed half-a-sen to 76 sen while NETX and Borneo Oil were flat at three sen and eight sen, respectively.
Market breadth was negative with losers trouncing gainers 600 to 360, with 355 counters unchanged, 608 untraded and 55 others were suspended.
Volume decreased to 2.18 billion units, valued at RM2.28 billion, from Friday's 2.20 billion units, worth RM2.95 billion.
The FBM Emas Index decreased 123.41 points to 12,418.29, the FBM Ace lost 56.67 points to 5,132.94 and the FBMT 100 Index gave up 123.56 points to 12,225.12.
The FBM Emas Syariah Index fell 164.96 points to 12,444.96 and the FBM 70 declined 64.3 points to 14,776.32.
Sector-wise, the Finance Index trimmed 143.46 points to 17,736.1, the Industrial Index eased 58.45 points to 3,154.96 while the Plantation Index declined 0.35 of-a-point to 7,843.76.
The Main Market volume declined to 1.29 billion shares, worth RM2.14 billion, from Friday's 1.35 billion shares valued RM2.80 billion.
Warrants volume gained to 586.73 million units, valued at RM98.4 million, from Friday's 562.02 million units valued at RM116.83 million.
Volume on the ACE Market rose to 300.51 million shares, worth RM39.19 million, from 280.26 million shares, valued at RM34.72 million, previously.
Consumer products accounted for 41.36 million shares traded on the Main Market, industrial products (225.32 million), construction (60.92 million), trade and services (668.31 million), technology (53.74 million), infrastructure (42.55 million), SPAC (887,300), finance (80.99 million), hotels (4.33 million), properties (82.33 million), plantations (26.59 million), mining (56,300), REITs (7.19 million) and closed/fund (2,100).
The physical price of gold as at 5pm stood at RM160.63 per gramme, down 89 sen from RM161.52 at 5pm last Friday. — Bernama