Bursa Malaysia Closes Lower On Selling In Small Caps, Losses In Finance Counters

KUALA LUMPUR, Sept 13 (Bernama) -- Bursa Malaysia (Malaysia's Stock Exchange) ended Tuesday's trading in the red, weighed down by selling pressure in small capital counters and losses in finance index-related counters. At 5 pm, the benchmark FTSE Bursa Malaysia KLCI (FBM KLCI) stood at 1,677.18, down 9.26 points, from Friday's close of 1,686.44. After opening 6.17 points lower at 1,680.27, the local index moved between 1,672.24 and 1,682.41 throughout the day. Decliners led gainers by 636 to 206, while 317 counters were unchanged, 511 untraded and 20 others suspended. Volume improved to 1.36 billion units worth US$366.55 million (RM1.51 billion, US$1 = RM4.11) from 1.34 billion units worth RM1.36 billion on Friday. The market also reacted to regional markets' performance, with Singapore's Straits Times Index down 1.94 per cent while Hong Kong's Hang Seng fell 0.32 per cent. Adding to the pressure in the local market, Brent crude fell 1.4 per cent to US$47.67 per barrel due to an oversupply crisis which is expected to prolong until next year. The FBM Emas Index fell 66.29 points to 11,794.63, the FBMT100 Index declined 61.7 points to 11,501.30 and the FBM Emas Shariah Index slipped 67.93 points to 12,437.98. The FBM 70 went down 66.77 points to 13,659.42 and the FBM Ace fell 96.53 points to 5,187.65. On a sectoral basis, the Finance Index dropped 105.37 points to 14,405.88, the Industrial Index was 22.98 points lower at 3,128.72 while the Plantation Index declined 27.27 points to 7,861.25. Of the finance-related counters, CIMB fell 16 sen to RM4.74, RHB Bank and AMMB gave up eight sen to RM4.85 and RM4.26 respectively, Maybank slid one sen to RM7.94 while Hong Leong gained 22 sen to RM15.92. Of the heavyweights, Axiata slipped 16 sen to RM5.49, Sime Darby was seven sen lower at RM7.79, SapuraKencana and MISC both fell five sen to RM1.57 and RM7.61 respectively and Petronas Chemicals eased three sent to RM6.65. Among actives, TNB gained 10 sen to RM14.54 but Maxis was two sen lower at RM6.23 and Genting fell 10 sen to RM7.84. Main Market turnover was higher at 899.08 million shares worth RM1.43 billion from 885.17 million shares worth RM1.29 billion on Friday. The ACE Market volume shrank to 219.16 million units valued at RM33.62 million from 225.59 million units valued at RM32.59 million on Friday. Warrants rose to 235.45 million shares worth RM47.01 million from 231.68 million shares worth RM37.60 million on Friday. Consumer products accounted for 46.76 million shares traded on the Main Market, industrial products (308.9 million), construction (45.65 million), trade and services (322.34 million), technology (47.79 million), infrastructure (15.11 million), SPAC (3.9 million), finance (43.34 million), hotels (37,200), properties (41.66 million), plantations (19.04 million), mining (18,000), REITs (4.48 million) and closed/fund (42,600). --BERNAMA