KUALA LUMPUR:Bursa Malaysia continued its downturn to close lower today as investors continued to take profits in the local bourse.
At 5pm today, the FTSE Bursa Malaysia KLCI (FBM KLCI) was at 1,596.68, down 7.58 points from Thursday's close of 1,604.26.
The benchmark index, which opened 4.62 points firmer at 1,608.88, fluctuated between 1,595.36 and 1,612.31 throughout the trading session.
There were 309 gainers, 900 losers and 392 counters traded unchanged on the Bursa Malaysia.
Turnover was at 4.305 billion shares valued at RM3.536 billion.
Rakuten Trade Sdn Bhd equity research vice-president Thong Pak Leng said the FBM KLCI remained in the negative territory as their profit taking activities continued following the earlier strong gains.
Thong said the benchmark index encountered selling pressure and breached the key support level of 1,600 today although strong support is seen around this level.
"Given the index's drop below the 20-day EMA, we anticipate choppy market conditions ahead and expect consolidation to persist, with the benchmark fluctuating around the 20-day EMA. If residual selling pressure continues, we may see the index to fall and retest the 1,575-1,589 levels once again.
"Therefore, we anticipate the index to trade within the range of 1,585-1,615 next week. At the same time, we believe there is still appetite for the local market as the daily trading volume remains strong at above average at above 5.0 billion shares," he told Business Times.
Among the heavyweights, Public Bank Bhd rose two sen to RM4.10, CIMB Group Holdings Bhd stayed flat at RM6.84, Tenaga Nasional Bhd fell 14 sen to RM13.04, Malayan Banking Bhd added three sen to RM9.93 and IHH Healthcare Bhd flat at RM6.19.
Among the actives, Datasonic Group Bhd trimmed three sen to 48 sen, Velesto shed one sen to 26 sen while MYEG inched four sen to RM1.10 and JCY International Bhd stasyed flat at 5.2 sen.