Bursa Malaysia ends lower

KUALA LUMPUR: Bursa Malaysia ended lower today on profit-taking in selected blue-chips and in line with the weaker sentiment on regional bourses.

At 5pm, the benchmark FTSE Bursa Malaysia KLCI (FBM KLCI) stood at 1,706.55, down 6.03 points from Monday's close of 1,712.58 after opening 0.37-of-a-point higher at 1,712.95 at 9.00 am.

The index moved between 1,706.09 and 1,719.76 throughout the day.

Losers led gainers by 552 to 364 while 363 counters were unchanged, 451 untraded and 23 others suspended.

Volume, however, rose to 2.89 billion units worth RM2.36 billion against Monday's 2.49 billion shares worth RM2.22 billion.

Kenanga Research said the KLCI, which managed to close above the 1,710 mark yesterday, had raised slight concerns over the deeply overbought conditions observed on the daily Relative Strength Index (RSI) and Stochastic indicators that indicated the stock market was in a toppish environment.

"While we are still holding an upside-bias card over the mid-term, we do not discount the possibility of the key index taking a breather from its strong rally in the immediate term," it said in a note today.

Meanwhile, a dealer said the local bourse was influenced by the regional market trend which remained tepid on lack of trading cues as the US stock market closed for the Presidents' Day holiday on Monday.

Regionally, Hong Kong's Hang Seng fell 182.45 points to 23,963.63, Singapore's Straits Times lost 5.49 points to 3,091.20 and Indonesia's Jakarta Composite Index shed 18.30 points to 5,340.99.

Among heavyweights, Petronas Chemicals slid 15 sen to RM7.33, Genting Malaysia dropped 18 sen to RM5.20, IOI Corp eased 12 sen to RM4.51, and BAT reduced RM1.78 to RM49.30.

Of the actives, Metronic and Sterling Progress both inched down half-a-sen to 8.5 sen and 20.5 sen, respectively, while Dagang Nexchange gained one sen to 38.5 sen, and its warrant was half-a-sen lower at nine sen.

Among losers, Dutch Lady gave up 26 sen to RM54.44, KLK lost 24 sen to RM24.24 and Aeon Credit trimmed 22 sen to RM15.50.

The FBM Emas Index declined 26.28 points to 12,026.96, the FBMT 100 Index erased 23.10 points to 11,706.33 and the FBM Emas Syariah Index was 25.07 points lower at 12,520.13.

The FBM 70 jumped 41.87 points to 13,926.59 and the FBM Ace Index surged 73.92 points to 5,380.40.

Sector-wise, the Plantation Index fell 67.28 points to 8,005.95 and the Finance Index edged up 1.51 points to 15,065.27.

The Industrial Index, however, shed 13.41 points to 3,278.69.
Main Market turnover improved to 2.02 billion units worth RM2.21 billion from 1.84 billion units worth RM2.10 billion on Monday.

The ACE Market increased to 628.53 million shares valued at RM121.26 million from 449.21 million shares valued at RM91.68 million previously.

Warrants advanced to 232.82 million units worth RM28.85 million from 200.11 million units worth RM22.54 million on Monday.

Consumer products accounted for 126.67 million shares traded on the Main Market, industrial products (275.559 million), construction (193.63 million), trade and services (1.04 billion), technology (83.44 million), infrastructure (9.75 million), SPAC (19.20 million), finance (54.61 million), hotels (404,600), properties (146.82 million), plantations (45.58 million), mining (19,400), REITs (17.67 million), and closed/fund (13,800).
The physical price of gold as at 5pm stood at RM170.79 per gramme, down 56 sen from RM171.35 at 5pm yesterday. — Bernama