Bursa Malaysia ends at intra-day low
KUALA LUMPUR: Bursa Malaysia ended lower today on continued profit-taking in small capitalised counters and selected heavyweights to close at its intra-day low, dealers said.
At 5pm, the FTSE Bursa Malaysia KLCI (FBM KLCI) finished at 1,624.97, down 3.99 points from last Friday's close of 1,628.96, after moving to a high of 1,631.41 during the day.
The benchmark index opened 1.60 points higher at 1,630.56.
A dealer told Bernama that Bursa Malaysia's weaker performance was in line with most Asian bourses, however, the appreciation of the ringgit against the US dollar capped the persistent selling.
Japan's Nikkei 225 declined 0.82% to 18,274.99, China's Shanghai Composite decreased 1.21% to 3,204.71, South Korea's Kospi was down 0.37% to 1,963.36, but Singapore's Straits Times Index gained 0.81% to 2,943.05.
Among heavyweights, Maybank slipped one sen to RM7.84, TNB fell two sen to RM14.02, Public Bank gave up 12 sen to RM19.52, Petronas Chemicals eased two sen to RM6.87 and Sime Darby was down one sen to RM8.12.
As for actives, Hibiscus Petroleum rose one sen to 31 sen, APFT and KNM fell half-a-sen each to 6.5 sen and 33 sen, respectively, while RGB International and Green Packet were flat at 24 sen and 27.5 sen, respectively.
On the broader market, losers outpaced gainers 440 to 297 with 347 counters unchanged, 612 untraded and 21 others suspended.
Volume was lower at 1.13 billion units worth RM1.35 billion from 1.28 billion shares worth RM1.46 billion last Friday.
The FBM Emas Index declined 32.52 points to 11,366.65, the FBMT 100 Index slipped 30.74 points to 11,100.29 and the FBM Emas Syariah Index decreased 18.8 points to 11,907.34.
The FBM 70 shed 48.85 points to 13,027.55 and the FBM Ace erased 15.23 points to 4,763.34.
Sector-wise, the Finance Index slid 34.39 points to 14,253.87, the Plantation Index eased 13.96 points to 7,704.28 and the Industrial Index dipped 3.03 points to 3,060.51.
Main Market turnover shrank to 762.02 million units worth RM1.28 billion from 851.99 million units worth RM1.39 billion last Friday.
The ACE Market volume declined to 167.17 million shares valued at RM22.9 million from 206.50 million shares valued at RM25.96 million.
Warrants decreased to 204.81 million units worth RM44.15 million from 223.15 million units worth RM43.61 million previously.
Consumer products accounted for 30.45 million shares traded on the Main Market, industrial products (187.26 million), construction (86.41 million), trade and services (265.29 million), technology (53.29 million), infrastructure (5.27 million), SPAC (35.71 million), finance (27.86 million), hotels (79,500), properties (33.41 million), plantations (25.58 million), mining (nil), REITs (11.37 million) and closed/fund (3,000).
The physical price of gold as at 5pm stood at RM161.26 per gramme, down RM1.96 from RM163.22 at 5pm last friday. — Bernama