Bursa Malaysia ends mixed on late profit-taking

KUALA LUMPUR: Bursa Malaysia ended mixed today as the last-minute profit-taking in selected heavyweights outweighed gains in small-capitalised stocks.
The benchmark FTSE Bursa Malaysia KLCI (FBM KLCI) lost 1.3 points to close at 1,747.00, its lowest today, compared with Wednesday's close of 1,748.30.
After opening 2.36 points higher at 1,750.66, the benchmark index touched its high of 1,753.76 today.
On the broader market, gainers outpaced losers by 596 to 378, with 324 counters unchanged, 431 untraded and 23 others were suspended.
Volume rose to 4.77 billion units worth RM3.66 billion from 3.16 billion units worth RM2.75 billion yesterday.
A dealer said the market was positive the whole day as traders looked for opportunities within the fundamentally solid small-capitalised and oversold stocks, following yesterday's sell-off.
However, things took a turn 10 minutes before the closing bell as some traders took profits off the table.
Meanwhile, an attack close to Britain's Parliament, which killed five people, did not affect Asian equity markets, including that of Malaysia.
Among heavyweights, IHH Healthcare fell one sen to RM5.99 while Maxis and Axiata declined six sen each to RM6.37 and RM5, respectively.
Of other heavyweights, Maybank added six sen to RM9 while TNB and Public Bank were both flat at RM13.72 and RM19.96, respectively.
Of the actives, Efficiente E-Solutions rose 21 sen to 50 sen, Dataprep added three sen to 65 sen and Green Packet was 6.5 sen to 36 sen.
The FBM Emas Index increased 8.98 points to 12,381.11, FBMT100 Index rose 6.1 points to 12,031.64, and the FBM Emas Syariah Index was 11.01 points better at 12,796.91.
The FBM 70 inched up 64.13 points to 14,494.95 and the FBM Ace surged 190.48 points to 5,776.55.
Sector-wise, the Finance Index gained 2.51 points to 15,767.91, Plantation Index lost 49.94 points to 8,180.44 and the Industrial Index was 0.12 of-a-point better at 3,280.03.
Main Market turnover improved to 3.25 billion units worth RM3.38 billion from 2.45 billion units worth RM2.63 billion yesterday.
Volume on the ACE Market advanced to 1.27 billion shares valued at RM244.84 million from 458.46 million shares valued at RM85.01 million on Wednesday.
Warrants increased to 210.18 million units worth RM27.22 million from 201.96 million units worth RM26.4 million previously.
Consumer products accounted for 270.92 million shares traded on the Main Market, industrial products (567.34 million), construction (184.54 million), trade and services (1.11 billion), technology (709.54 million), infrastructure (14.72 million), SPAC (4.26 million), finance (109.03 million), hotels (1.8 million), properties (243.9 million), plantations (32.01 million), mining (10,100), REITs (7.35 million), and closed/fund (75,000).
The physical price of gold as at 5pm stood at RM171.84 per gramme, up 18 sen from RM171.66 at 5pm yesterday. — Bernama