Bursa ends lower on mild profit taking

The FTSE Bursa Malaysia KLCI (FBM KLCI) ended easier today, 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 yesterday'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 yesterday.

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 yesterday.

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 yesterday.

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