KUALA LUMPUR: Shares on Bursa Malaysia closed lower today as investors booked profit ahead of the weekend, with losses mostly seen in selected heavyweights, dealers said. At 5 pm, the benchmark FTSE Bursa Malaysia KLCI (FBM KLCI) stood at 1,743.57, down 1.43 points, after hovering between 1,732.35 and 1,745.58 throughout the day.
Head of Retail Research at Affin Hwang Investment Bank, Datuk Dr Nazri Khan Adam Khan, said the global market tone came under fresh pressure from ongoing weakness in currency and commodity markets, highlighted by a huge overnight weekly decline in the euro and yen as well as oil and copper.
“Oil prices saw renewed volatility, with Brent and Light Crude continuing to fall below the psychological US$50 per barrel,” he told Bernama today.
On other scoreboards, the FBM Emas Index declined 14.66 points to 12,001.81, the FBMT100 Index slipped 13.03 points to 11,722.52, while the FBM Emas Shariah Index lost 20.91 points to 12,518.47.
The FBM 70 dropped 27.65 points to 13,076.63 but the FBM Ace rose 2.8 points to 6,103.67.
Sector-wise, the Industrial Index slipped 19.71 points to 3,182.34, the Finance Index fell 25.96 points to 15,366.83 while the Plantation Index dipped 31.28 points to 7,776.16.
On the broader market, losers led gainers by 407 to 353 with 290 counters unchanged, 697 counters untraded and 22 others suspended.
Total volume declined to 1.78 billion shares worth RM1.88 billion from 1.93 billion shares worth RM2.3 billion on Thursday.
Among the most active counters, Minetech was one sen lower at 9.5 sen, Systech and Hubline were flat at 29 sen and four sen, respectively, while SapuraKencana rose six sen to RM2.50.
Of the heavyweights, TNB and Maybank were flat at RM14.38 and RM8.60, respectively, Public Bank added four sen to RM17.56 while Axiata declined two sen to RM7.
Bursa Malaysia Securities has issued an unusual market activity query to IFCA MSC Bhd due to the recent rise in the price and volume of its shares. The counter closed 4.5 sen lower at 95 sen, with 42.05 million shares changing hands.
Main Market volume slipped to 1.17 billion shares worth RM1.69 billion from Thursday's 1.28 billion shares worth RM2.08 billion.
Turnover on the ACE Market narrowed to 475.79 million shares valued at RM144.46 million from 477.29 million shares valued at RM155.85 million previously. Warrants decreased to 136.92 million units worth RM46.75 million from 175.72 million units worth RM55.82 million on Thursday.
Consumer products accounted for 139.83 million shares traded on the Main Market, industrial products (371.54 million), construction (36.88 million), trade and services (358.89 million), technology (37.12 million), infrastructure (18.61 million), SPAC (16.49 million), finance (64.56 million), hotels (5.29 million), properties (93.17 million), plantations (14.49 million), mining (48,400), REITs (13.54 million) and closed/fund (17,000). -- BERNAMA