KUALA LUMPUR: Share prices on Bursa Malaysia closed lower today dragged down by the weaker oil prices coupled with discouraging manufacturing data from China, dealers said.
At 5pm, the benchmark FTSE Bursa Malaysia KLCI (FBM KLCI) contracted by 42.62 points to close at 1,778.27, after hovering between 1,821.52 and 1,768.21 throughout the day.
A dealer said oil prices continued their fall to lower than US$65 a barrel and with the world's biggest oil producing nations maintaining their levels of production, a further downtrend in prices to as low as US$60 a barrel is expected in the near term.
Asian bourses were affected by the drop in oil prices and the world's second largest economy's lower-than-expected manufacturing data.
Hong Kong's Hang Seng Index lost 620 points to 23,367.45, Singapore's STI Index slipped 45.33 points to 3,305.17, but Japan's Nikkei 225 was 130.25 points higher at 17,590.1.
On the local bourse, Petronas' announcement of reduced capital expenditure led to shares of oil and gas-related companies retreating, with Petronas Dagangan losing RM1.44 to RM14.60, while Petronas Gas trimmed RM1.72 to RM21 and SapuraKencana declined 29 sen to RM2.51.
On the scoreboard, the FBM Emas Index shed 343.69 points to 12,195.4, the FBMT100 Index erased 318.77 points to 11,908.82, the FBM 70 fell 480.21 points to 13,101.97, the FBM Ace shed 356.34 points to 5,963.41 and the FBM Emas Syariah Index decreased 431.91 points for 12,604.35.
On a sectoral basis, the Finance Index dipped 361.95 points to 15,913.71, the Industrial Index eased 85.3 points to 3,246.38 and the Plantation Index trimmed 158.11 points to 8,175.4.
Market breadth was negative with losers outpacing gainers by 980 to 82 while 151 counters were unchanged, 476 untraded and 12 suspended.
Total volume fell to 2.76 billion units worth RM2.95 billion from 1.87 billion units worth 1.99 billion on Friday.
Of the heavyweights, Maybank decreased 32 sen to RM9.14, TNB was down 20 sen to RM14.06 while Axiata was six sen lower at RM7.
Among actives, Bumi Armada fell 14 sen to RM1.01, Dialog Group decreased 23 sen to RM1.26, Sumatec Resources was two-and-a-half sen lower at 23 sen and Malaysia Airlines System was flat at 26.5 sen.
Main Market volume increased to 2.07 billion units worth RM2.83 billion from 1.87 billion units worth RM1.99 billion on Friday.
Turnover on the ACE Market increased to 541.67 million shares valued at RM108.97 million from 429.47 million shares valued at RM90.75 million.
Warrants rose to 132.64 million units worth RM13.95 million from 80.38 million units worth RM75.5 million previously.
Consumer products accounted for 74.9 million shares traded on the Main Market, industrial products (327.18 million), construction (97.33 million), trade and services (1.15 billion), technology (81.41 million), infrastructure (25.42 million), SPAC (91.6 million), finance (61.18 million), hotels (1.49 million), properties (139.44 million), plantations (18.18 million), mining (262,500), REITs (7.86 million) and closed/fund (240,300).-- Bernama