Lower on gains in selected heavyweights

BURSA Malaysia closed lower yesterday with gains in selected heavyweights offset by profit-taking in overbought blue chips and small-capitalised stocks.

At 5pm, the FBM KLCI ended 0.08% or 1.52 points lower at 1,856.35 from Wednesday’s close of 1,857.87.

The key index opened 1.47 points firmer at 1,859.34 and moved between 1,854.50 and 1,860.56 throughout the day.

Towards the last hour of trading, the index turned choppy while trading in a tight range.

Market breadth was negative with 546 losers against 330 gainers, 384 counters unchanged, 651 untraded and 57 others suspended.

A dealer said regional stock markets were mostly higher despite the lower close of Wall Street, which was dragged down by an extended slide in technology stocks.

“Profit-taking emerged ahead of Good Friday today, which is a public holiday in Singapore and Hong Kong.

“Amid uncertainty over global trade tensions and the health of the US technology sector, some investors chose to remain cautious over the short-term period,” he added.

Among heavyweights, Maybank bagged two sen for RM10.52, Public Bank rose four sen to RM24.00 and Tenaga increased 36 sen to RM16.16.

Of the actively-traded stocks, Sapura Energy recovered half-a-sen to 50.5 sen, DBE was flat at 3.5 sen and Ekovest gained 4.5 sen to 31.5 sen. – Bernama