Bursa Malaysia ends lower in sync with regional peers

KUALA LUMPUR: Bursa Malaysia closed lower today in line with most of Asian bourses on continued profit-taking in selected finance and trade/service heavyweights, dealers said.
At 5pm, the FTSE Bursa Malaysia KLCI (FBM KLCI) finished at 1,659.60, down 11.33 points from Tuesday's close of 1,670.93, after opening 1.12 points lower at 1,669.81.
The benchmark index moved between 1,656.50 and 1,669.81 throughout the day.
Axiata and CIMB were the top contributors to the loss in the benchmark index, declining 13 sen and 10 sen each to RM4.94 and RM4.88, respectively, giving a combined loss of 3.47 points.
Among other heavyweights, TNB slipped eight sen to RM14.32, Maybank fell five sen to RM7.81, Public Bank gave up 14 sen to RM19.86 while Petronas Chemicals added two sen to RM7.
As for actives, Hibiscus eased one sen to 30.5 sen, FGV fell 14 sen to RM1.82, WCT advanced eight sen to RM1.83 while Vivocom earned half-a-sen to 17 sen.
Kenanga Investment Bank, which assumed K&N Kenanga's listing status on Bursa Malaysia today, ended lower, dipping one sen to 47.5 sen with 156,100 shares changing hands.
A dealer said most regional bourses were weakened by growing investors concerns over narrowing the gap between US presidential nominees Donald Trump and Hillary Clinton.
Additionally, investors were keeping an eye on the outcome of the two-day US Federal Reserve policy meeting which will end on Wednesday, he said.
Meanwhile, he said oil prices declined to one-month lows as a trade group's report of a larger-than-expected US crude inventory fuelling up doubts over whether oil-producing countries could agree on output cut later this month.
On the broader market, losers overwhelmed gainers 658 to 206 with 308 counters unchanged, 484 untraded and 17 others suspended.
Volume was higher at 1.68 billion units worth RM1.98 billion from 1.31 billion units worth RM1.67 billion on Tuesday.
The FBM Emas Index declined 81.71 points to 11,684.11, the FBMT 100 Index slipped 76.58 points to 11,391.75 and the FBM Emas Syariah Index decreased 76.06 points to 12,296.51.
The FBM 70 declined 86.82 points to 13,569.51 and the FBM Ace erased 28.68 points to 5,005.
The Finance Index dropped 120.37 points to 14,414.48, the Plantation Index slipped 86.61 points to 7,766.03 and but Industrial Index rose 6.21 points to 3,155.96.
Main Market turnover expanded to 1.11 billion units worth RM1.89 billion, from 884.22 million units worth RM1.60 billion yesterday.
The ACE Market volume improved to 259.46 million shares valued at RM37.64 million from 199.47 million shares valued at RM28.54 million.
Warrants increased to 314.13 million units worth RM49.90 million from 218.06 million units worth RM41.55 million previously.
Consumer products accounted for 72.80 million shares traded on the Main Market, industrial products (266.67 million), construction (112.03 million), trade and services (402.37 million), technology (36.60 million), infrastructure (6.62 million), SPAC (23.81 million), finance (62.18 million), hotels (406,200), properties (56.81 million), plantations (51.56 million), mining (4,000), REITs (16.84 million) and closed/fund (30,100).
The physical price of gold as at 5pm stood at RM169.22 per gramme, up RM2.42 from RM166.80 at 5pm yesterday. — Bernama