KUALA LUMPUR, Dec 20 — Shares on Bursa Malaysia continued their downtrend to close lower today, dampened by subdued demand from investors, dealers said.

The FBM KLCI finished the day at 1,838.03, down 8.15 points from yesterday’s close, with losses mostly recorded in selected heavyweights and blue chips, they said.

JF Apex Securities Head of Research Lee Chung Cheng said the market was dragged by mild profit taking as investors locked in profits following the market’s overbought situation due to window dressing.

“The market is currently in a selling mode. The key index breached new highs recently and this (profit taking) is a normal activity in the market,” he told Bernama.

He also said some investors were already on the sidelines ahead of the weekend and Christmas celebration next week, and this reflected in the day’s low volume transaction.    

Lee noted the FBM KLCI’s immediate support stood at the 1,826-point level, with resistance at 1,880 points.      

On the scoreboard, the Finance Index fell 50.36 points to 16,838.15, the Industrial Index eased 7.59 points to 3,146.3, and the Plantation Index lost 66.85 points to 8,833.61.

The FBM Emas Index declined 43.71 points to 12,685.91, FBMT100 Index dropped 42.29 points to 12,424.03, FBM 70 gave up 85.24 points for 14,025.38 and the FBM Ace was down 14.12 points to 5,622.02.

Losers trounced gainers by 506 to 261, while 313 counters were unchanged, 476 untraded and 16 others suspended.

Volume fell to 980.253 million shares worth RM1.366 billion from yesterday’s 1.062 billion shares worth RM1.559 billion.

Among actives, Sumatec Resources, Tiger Synergy and Daya Materials all went down 1.5 sen each to 26.5 sen, 16.5 sen and 38.5 sen, respectively.

As for heavyweights, TNB lost 22 sen to RM10.82, Maybank fell eight sen to RM10.02, CIMB eased five sen to RM7.60 and Axiata Group slipped two sen to RM6.77.

However, Sime Darby gained six sen to RM9.61.               

Volume on the Main Market declined to 792.139 million units worth RM1.307 billion from 826.502 million units worth RM1.494 billion yesterday.          

Turnover on the ACE market fell to 146.402 million shares valued at RM49.319 million from yesterday’s 180.48 million shares valued at RM53.999 million.

Warrants shrank to 35.132 million units worth RM4.269 million from 42.894 million units worth RM7.131 million previously.         

Consumer products accounted for 46.74 million shares on the Main Market, industrial products 116.132 million, construction 27.221 million, trade and services 353.959 million, technology 22.467 million, infrastructure 22.025 million, SPAC 17.685 million, finance 35.567 million, hotels 271,900, properties 127.346 million, plantations 17.767 million, mining 13,700, REITs 4.932 million and closed/fund 7,600. — Bernama