Lower on mild selling

BURSA Malaysia closed lower yesterday with the FBM KLCI easing 1.49 points to 1,669.50 on mild selling in line with regional peers, dealers said.

The market barometer opened 1.47 points weaker at 1,669.52 and moved between 1,665.41 and 1,671.46 during the day.

On the Bursa scoreboard, losers beat winners 484 to 324 while 372 counters were unchanged, 510 untraded and 17 suspended. Volume fell to 1.64 billion units worth RM1.57 billion.

A dealer said regional markets were broadly lower, ahead of the Organisation of the Petroleum Exporting Countries meeting this week to discuss a production cut.

On Bursa Malaysia, traders remained on the sidelines, keeping their eyes on the US presidential debate between Donald Trump and Hillary Clinton early today in Asian time zones.

“There was some profit-taking activity by market players. But we expect to see the local bourse picking up by the end of this week on window-dressing as it is the last week of September, and also the end of the third quarter,” the dealer said.

Of the heavyweights, TNB and Petronas Chemicals were flat at RM14.40 and RM6.70, respectively, while Maybank rose 2 sen to RM7.69 and Public Bank jumped 24 sen to RM19.98. – Bernama