Bursa Malaysia closes lower on losses in heavyweights

KUALA LUMPUR: Bursa Malaysia, which remained in the red today, closed lower on profit-taking in key heavyweights and in line with the sell-off in most global equity markets.
The benchmark FTSE Bursa Malaysia KLCI (FBM KLCI) lost 6.37 points to close at 1,748.3, its highest today, compared with Tuesday's close of 1,754.67.
After opening 6.92 points weaker at 1,747.75 this morning, the benchmark index touched its low of 1,738.4 today.
On the broader market, losers outpaced gainers 606 to 328, with 343 counters unchanged, 453 untraded and 16 others suspended.
Volume fell to 3.16 billion units worth RM2.75 billion from 4.57 billion units worth RM3.28 billion yesterday.
A dealer said most Southeast Asian equities markets were on a downtrend today, as investors took the cue from a Wall Street sell-off.
"The decline is due to renewed worries over US President Donald Trump's economic growth agenda and a possible delay in his tax initiatives.
"The market is jittery and this has prompted them to buy 'safe haven' assets like gold and government bonds, while dumping risky ones," he added.
Among heavyweights on Bursa Malaysia, Maybank and TNB fell six sen each to RM8.94 and RM13.72, respectively, Public Bank declined 12 sen to RM19.96, and Sime Darby eased four sen to RM9.26.
Of the actives, Dataprep gained 12 sen to 62 sen, Daya Materials rose 1.5 sen to 9.5 sen and Naim Indah was half-a-sen higher at 10.5 sen.
The FBM Emas Index decreased 34.22 points to 12,372.13, the FBMT100 Index declined 33.11 points to 12,025.54, and the FBM Emas Syariah Index was 10.09 points lower at 12,785.9.
The FBM 70 inched up 0.9 of-a-point to 14,430.82 but the FBM Ace decreased 26.86 points to 5,586.07.
Sector-wise, the Finance Index lost 62.64 points to 15,765.4, the Plantation Index gained 29.97 points to 8,230.38 and the Industrial Index eased 4.11 points to 3,279.91.
Main Market turnover fell to 2.45 billion units worth RM2.63 billion from 3.1 billion units worth RM3.07 billion yesterday.
Volume on the ACE Market declined to 458.46 million shares valued at RM85.01 million from 1.08 billion shares valued at RM161.28 million.
Warrants contracted to 201.96 million units worth RM26.4 million from 296.69 million units worth RM33.36 million.
Consumer products accounted for 125.36 million shares traded on the Main Market, industrial products (507.63 million), construction (137.25 million), trade and services (1.02 billion), technology (246.96 million), infrastructure (25.66 million), SPAC (2.36 million), finance (95.97 million), hotels (2.93 million), properties (241.31 million), plantations (29.02 million), mining (200), REITs (9.83 million), and closed/fund (1,000).
The physical price of gold as at 5pm stood at RM171.66 per gramme, up RM2.13 from RM169.53 at 5pm yesterday. — Bernama