FBM KLCI ends lower on mild profit taking

KUALA LUMPUR: The FTSE Bursa Malaysia KLCI ( FBM KLCI) ended easier yesterday, weighed by mild profit taking in selective index-linked and construction counters, a dealer said.

The key index stood at 1,774, down 2.73 points from Tuesday’s close.

The market barometer hovered between 1,769.17 and 1,783.57 throughout the day. Losers outpaced gainers by 423 to 391, with 266 counters unchanged, 527 untraded and 32 suspended.

Volume increased to 2.34 billion shares worth RM2.85 billion from 2.30 billion shares worth RM4.06 million Tuesday.

Mercury Securities head of research, Edmund Tham said after the hefty 82 points or 4.8 per cent gain over the past two days, profit taking emerged to capitalise the gains in selective counters especially heavyweight and construction counters.

“But foreign fund buying was still strong. They have been partially contributing to the rally in the local bourse for the last few days,” he told Bernama.

According to Bursa Malaysia, foreign funds accounted for 29.43 per cent of trade Tuesday.

On the scoreboard, the Finance Index fell 43.469 points to 16,815.39, the Plantation Index shed 7.91 points to 8,191.30 and the Industrial Index gained 3.12 points to 2,920.78.

The FBM Emas Index declined 26.399 points to 12,148.23 and the FBMT100 edged down 24.95 points to 11,976.92.

The FBM Mid 70 Index dipped 54.71 points to 13,556.28 while the FBM Ace Index dropped 26.01 points to 4,133.25.

Among actives, TH Heavy Engineering added 3.5 sen to 57 sen, Scomi earned 2.5 sen to 38.5 sen while Astro and Alam Maritim gained six sen each to RM3.10 and RM1.11 respectively.

On heavyweights, Maybank lost 12 sen to RM10.16, CIMB dropped eight sen to RM8.57 and Axiata slipped one sen to RM6.99.

Sime Darby added five sen to RM9.45 and Petronas Chemicals was up two sen to RM6.60.

Volume on the Main Market rose to 2.19 billion shares worth RM2.83 billion from 2.15 billion shares worth RM4.02 billion Tuesday.

Turnover on the ACE market decreased to 82.96 million shares valued at RM15.62 million from 91.02 million shares valued at RM16.68 million Tuesday.

Warrants increased to 66.46 million units worth RM5.71 million from 62.43 million units worth RM9.38 million previously.

Consumer products accounted for 71.24 million shares on the Main Market, industrial products 127.24 million, construction 100.94 million, trade and services 1.46 billion, technology 38.40 million, infrastructure 22.29 million, SPAC 104.64 million, finance 94.41 million, hotels 373,400, properties 134.93 million, plantations 10.72 million, mining 31,000, REITs 12.46 million and closed/fund 3.57 million. — Bernama