KUALA LUMPUR: Bursa Malaysia ended lower today, weighed down by selling activities in heavyweights led by Sime Darby Plantation and CIMB.
The benchmark FTSE Bursa Malaysia KLCI (FBM KLCI) finished at 1,713.13, down 4.73 points, from Thursday’s close of 1,717.86.
The market bellwether, which opened 0.12 of-a-point lower at 1,717.98, fluctuated between 1,709.17 and 1,727.99 throughout the day.
The overall market breadth was weaker with losers thumping gainers 661 to 286 while 337 counters were unchanged, 559 untraded and 19 others were suspended.
Sime Darby Plantation lost 16 sen to RM4.85, both CIMB and Maxis erased 10 sen each to RM5.95 and RM5.83, respectively, while IJM Corp trimmed 19 sen to RM2.90.
Total volume decreased to 1.80 billion units, worth RM2.57 billion, from last Thursday 2.47 billion units worth RM6.03 billion.
The market was closed on Friday for the Maulidur Rasul public holiday.
“The ringgit is higher today, suggesting good foreign fund inflow in the equity market but the overall market is down. I think local investors are winding down their positions ahead of the year-end,” a dealer said.
As of 5pm, the ringgit was sharply higher against the US dollar at 4.0600/0630 from 4.0875/0915 last Thursday.
Other heavyweights, TNB jumped 12 sen to RM15.58, Public Bank increased 10 sen to RM20, Petronas Chemicals added three sen to RM7.43 and Maybank was flat at RM9.25.
Of actives, Sime Darby advanced 12 sen to RM2.30, Green Packet gained 1.5 sen to 42.5 sen, DGB Asia was flat at 14 sen sen, Berjaya Corp declined two sen to 35.5 sen while both Hubline and China Stationery edged down half-a-sen each to 11 sen and one sen, respectively.
Ends