Bursa Malaysia ends lower
KUALA LUMPUR: Bursa Malaysia finished lower today on continued selling activities in most heavyweights mainly finance, trade and services counters as well as the small caps, dealers said.
The benchmark FTSE Bursa Malaysia KLCI (FBM KLCI) ended at 1,623.20 points, 6.93 points lower against Wednesday's close of 1,629.59, after moving between 1,622.59 and 1,629.90 throughout the day.
The index opened 0.56 point weaker at 1,629.03.
Losers edged gainers 514 to 215 with 337 counters unchanged, 693 untraded and 26 suspended.
Volume decreased to 1.05 billion shares worth RM1.19 billion from 1.15 billion shares valued at RM1.56 billion on Wednesday.
A dealer said investor sentiment was weak on lack of fresh local leads and external uncertainty, despite improved oil prices.
"Investors are cautious and will be closely monitoring the United States third quarter Gross Domestic Product (GDP) data which will be announced today for possible clues ahead of Christmas," said the dealer.
Brent, the international crude benchmark, were trading at 0.22% higher at US$54.58 a barrel.
Among the heavyweights, Maybank fell 11 sen to RM7.76, TNB eased two sen to RM13.74, Public Bank shed six sen to RM19.68 and Petronas Chemicals lost one sen to RM6.91.
Of the actives, Hibiscus Petroleum declined two sen to 36.5 sen, Borneo Oil and Trive Property were each flat 16.5 sen nine sen respectively while MQ Technology dipped one sen to 5.5 sen.
The FBM Emas Index shrank 49.76 points to 11,365.02, the FBMT 100 Index pared 47.60 points to 11,087.25 and the FBM 70 contracted 70.86 points to 13,010.19.
The FBM Emas Shariah Index slid 35.59 points to 11,950.82 and the FBM Ace lost 71.65 points to 4,737.90.
Sector-wise, the Finance Index reduced 72.23 points to 14,196.01, the Industrial Index lessened 13.29 points to 3,075.38 but the Plantation Index improved 13.29 points to 7,717.07.
Main Market turnover dropped to 709.73 million units worth RM1.13 billion from 821.26 million units valued at RM1.49 billion recorded on Wednesday.
The ACE Market volume increased to 177.07 million shares worth RM23.94 million from 171.05 million shares valued at RM29.93 million previously.
Warrants widened to 166.58 million units worth RM35.14 million from 164.98 million units valued at RM35.52 million yesterday.
Consumer products accounted for 79.18 million shares traded on the Main Market, industrial products (185.36 million), construction (46.65 million), trade and services (251.68 million), technology (44.56 million), infrastructure (8.17 million), SPAC (218,000), finance (45.44 million), hotels (137,300), properties (29.21 million), plantations (10.59 million), mining (nil), REITs (8.47 million) and closed/fund (7,000).
The physical price of gold as at 5pm stood at RM157.51 per gramme, down 33 sen from RM157.84 at 5pm yesterday. — Bernama