Bursa Malaysia ends lower at 1,688.84

Bursa Malaysia ended lower yesterday with selling seen in selected heavyweights led by Maybank, Tenaga, Sime Darby and Petronas Chemicals, dealers said.

The FTSE Bursa Malaysia Kuala Lumpur Composite Index (FBM KLCI) fell 2.40 points, or 0.14 per cent, to end at 1,688.84 from Monday’s close of 1,691.24.

The index opened 3.51 points easier at 1,687.73 and moved between 1,684.84 and 1,690.91 throughout the day.

A dealer said the local bourse took the cue from the downtrend on Wall Street overnight and regional bourses.

The Dow Jones Industrial Average slipped 19.04 points to 20,052.42, Nasdaq Composite shed 3.22 points to 5,663.55 and the Standard & Poor’s 500 fell 4.86 points to 2,292.56.

“Based on the decline in bluechips, there could also be some foreign funds taking money off the market,” he said.

He said the sentiment was also still subdued on account of the lack of clarity over US President Donald Trump’s economic plans.

Market breadth was, however, positive with gainers outpacing losers by 436 to 420 with 350 counters unchanged, 490 counters untraded and 16 others were suspended.

Turnover stood at 2.13 billion shares worth RM2.10 billion.

Of the heavyweights, Maybank fell five sen to RM8.17 and Public Bank bagged two sen to RM20.20, Tenaga and Sime Darby each slid six sen to RM13.38 and RM8.94 respectively and Petronas Chemicals dropped seven sen to RM7.21.

Among losers, KL Kepong shed 14 sen to RM25.02, NPC fell 13 sen to RM2.12, and Westports declined eight sen to RM4.18.

Of the actives, Borneo Oil was flat at 17 sen, Tek Seng improved eight sen to 78.0 sen and AirAsia X declined half-a-sen to 41.5 sen.

The FBM Emas Index fell 8.80 points to 11,893.51 and FBMT100 Index declined 11.16 points to 11,578.71.

The FBM 70, however, rose 6.91 points to 13,751.41.

The FBM Emas Shariah Index dipped 15.20 points to 12,435.08.

The FBM Ace bagged 39.83 points to 5,219.44.

Sector-wise, the Finance Index fell 12.67 points to 14,869.68 and the Plantation Index shed 24.52 points to 8,172.23.

The Industrial Index went up 4.25 points to 3,215.39.

Main Market turnover decreased to 1.52 billion units worth RM1.98 billion from Monday’s 1.81 billion units worth RM2.18 billion.

The ACE Market declined to 420.97 million shares valued at RM89.57 million from 528.97 million shares valued at RM97.79 million previously.

Warrants fell to 189.92 million units worth RM25.64 million from 276.88 million units worth RM37.89 million on Monday.

Consumer products accounted for 242.23 mi l lion shares traded on the Main Market, industrial products ( 334.66 million), construction (119.75 million), trade and services (488.79 million), technology (47.14 million), infrastructure (15.40 million), SPAC (1.33 million), fi nance ( 53.94 million), hotels ( 229,500), properties ( 172.22 million), plantations ( 34.46 million), mining (18,900), REITs (15.63 million), and closed/fund (100). — Bernama