Lower in range-bound trade

BURSA Malaysia ended marginally lower in rangebound trading, with selling seen across the board, dealers said.

The benchmark FBM KLCI ended lower at 1,772.30, down 1.66 points from the 1,773.96 at close on Thursday.

After opening 0.06 of a point lower at 1,773.90, the index moved between 1,769.47 and 1,778.18 throughout the day.

Sector-wise, the Finance Index eased 1.30 points to 16,499.86, the Industrial Index decreased 6.83 points to 3,275.93 but the Plantation Index was up 4.44 points at 8,064.46.

The FBM Emas Index was 30.59 points lower at 12,661.58, FBMT 100 Index shed 23.28 points to 12,294.36 and the FBM 70 dropped 72.76 points to 15,145.50.

Market breadth was negative as losers thumped gainers 771 to 208, with 344 counters unchanged, 459 untraded and 29 others suspended.

Volume decreased to 2.86 billion units, valued at RM2.61bil, from the 2.95 billion units, valued at RM3.17bil, traded on Thursday.

Among heavyweights, Maybank added one sen to RM9.40, Sime Darby gained three sen to RM9.33, Petronas Chemicals edged up one sen to RM7.40, TNB shed two sen to RM13.80 while Public Bank was flat at RM20.08. – Bernama