Bursa Malaysia ends lower

KUALA LUMPUR: Bursa Malaysia ended lower today on profit-taking in selected heavyweights and blue chips ahead of the weekend, dealers said.
At the close, the key FTSE Bursa Malaysia KLCI (FBM KLCI) eased 7.49 points or 0.42% to 1,778.32, after opening 2.09 points higher at 1,787.90 against Thursday's close of 1,785.81.
The index moved between 1,772.90 and 1,789.20 during the whole trading day.
On the broader market, losers led gainers by 537 to 415, with 371 counters unchanged, 576 untraded and 32 others suspended.
Volume decreased to 3.10 billion units worth RM2.42 billion, compared with Thursday's 4.06 billion units worth RM3.25 billion.
A dealer said despite some bargain hunting activities in selected counters, the local bourse's performance today failed to sustain yesterday's steady performance following the lack of stimulating news to boost the market.
Additionally, he said the sell down in the local bourse was in line with the regional peers, prompted by the mixed trend in the overnight Wall Street as investors' sentiment turned cautious after recent gains and ahead of the two-day Group of Seven Summit in Quebec, Canada on Friday and Saturday.
"On the local front, the trading mood remained cautious as investors stayed on the sidelines ahead of the coming Hari Raya holidays with investors reluctant to take any aggressive position," he said.
Among the actively traded stocks, MyEG gained 7.5 sen to 85.5 sen, Nova MSC rose two sen to 12.5 sen while Barakah Offshore fell 3.5 sen to 18.5 sen and Sapura Energy was flat at 63.5 sen.
Of the heavyweights, Maybank decreased seven sen to RM9.80, Public Bank was 20 sen lower at RM24.60, CIMB Group slid two sen to RM6.32, TNB rose six sen to RM14.62 while Petronas Chemicals perked two sen to RM8.39.
The FBM Emas Index eased 36.91 points to 12,473.07, the FBMT 100 Index fell 34.00 points to 12,270.56 and the FBM Ace erased 4.46 points to 5,295.40.
The FBM Emas Shariah Index lost 26.41 points to 12,465.60 but the FBM 70 was 19.04 points higher at 14,928.36.
Sector-wise, the Finance Index slid 74.85 points to 17,877.90, the Industrial Index shed 19.15 points to 3,202.18 and the Plantation Index declined 70.22 points to 7,660.97.
Main Market volume shrank to 1.80 billion shares worth RM2.14 billion from Thursday's 2.65 billion shares worth RM2.94 billion.
Warrants volume fell to 629.90 million units valued at RM186.87 million from 833.41 million units valued at RM201.84 million.
Volume on the ACE Market improved to 604.63 million shares valued at RM83.57 million from Thursday's 578.29 million shares valued at RM103.53 million.
Consumer products accounted for 45.91 million shares traded on the Main Market, industrial products (208.91 million), construction (92.00 million), trade and services (1.04 billion), technology (76.25 million), infrastructure (15.43 million), SPAC (20.88 million), finance (58.82 million), hotels (3.29 million), properties (176.38 million), plantations (51.20 million), mining (12,900), REITs (5.92 million) and closed/fund (9,800). — Bernama