KUALA LUMPUR, Dec 2 — Shares on Bursa Malaysia ended mixed today amid window-dressing and lack of direction from Wall Street last week dampening sentiment, dealers said.

Market sentiment was negative as losers led gainers by 474 to 284, with 290 counters unchanged, 516 untraded and 26 others suspended.

However, strong buying momentum in selected heavyweights pushed the FTSE Bursa Malaysia KLCI 5.43 points higher to close at 1,818.15, near a fresh all-time high of 1,818.93.

Total turnover declined to 1.25 billion shares valued at RM1.39 billion from 1.19 billion shares valued at RM1.52 billion last Friday.

Inter-Pacific Research Sdn Bhd head of research, Pong Teng Siew, said gains were capped amid traditional low volumes and window-dressing ahead of year-end position squaring.

“The window-dressing appears to be in full swing throughout the trading session, while mid-capitalised stocks showed a modest improvement,” Pong told Bernama.

Typically, he said, window-dressing would continue until next month, and the benchmark was likely to set a record high soon.

HwangDBS Vickers Research, in a note today, said the market traded sideways amid a mixed US major markets last week.

Back home, Tenaga Nasional stock was in the limelight after it asked to have trading on its stock suspended from 2.30pm to 5pm today, pending the announcement on the electricity tariff.

The stock edged up 3 sen to RM9.89 at the end of the morning session.

On the scoreboard, the Finance Index improved 25.75 points to 16,701.4 and the Industrial Index was 20.25 points higher at 3,174.08. The Plantation Index declined 20.5 points to 8,859.55. The FBM Emas Index rose 25.34 points to 12,579.38 and the FBMT100 Index advanced 27.39 points to 12,329.72. The FBM Ace lost 29.25 points to 5,563 and the FBM 70 fell 7.34 points to 14,173.91.

Among actives, XOX lost 2.5 sen to 14.5 sen and Sumatec fell 2 sen to 28.5 sen. Tiger Synergy gained 0.5 sen to 22.5 sen.

Of the heavyweights, Maybank rose 4 sen to RM9.82, CIMB slipped 3 sen to RM7.55 and Sime Darby was unchanged at RM9.65.

Volume on the Main Market fell to 832 million units valued at RM1.31 billion from 896.09 million units valued at RM1.45 billion last Friday.

Turnover on the ACE market rose to 377.27 million shares worth RM77.26 million from 248.09 million shares worth RM56.15 million last week.

Warrants expanded to 31.84 million units valued at RM3.7 million from 39.52 million units valued at RM3.16 million.

Consumer products accounted for 57.86 million shares on the Main Market, industrial products 86.48 million, construction 60.03 million, trade and services 347.88 million, technology 42.77 million, infrastructure 20.94 million, SPAC 23.13 million, finance 49.55 million, hotels 615,900, properties 127.78 million, plantations 9.49 million, mining 22,000, REITs 6.25 million and closed fund 13,000. — Bernama