KUALA LUMPUR, March 14 — Share prices on Bursa Malaysia closed lower today on persistent selling pressures ahead of the weekend amid lack of positive market leads, dealers said.

The benchmark FTSE Bursa Malaysia KLCI (FBM KLCI) index declined 13.74 points to close at its lowest point for the day at 1,805.12.

Market breadth remained bearish with losers outpacing gainers by 543 to 210, with 331 counters unchanged, 547 untraded and 26 others were suspended.

Volume fell to 1.37 billion shares worth RM2.08 billion from 1.70 billion shares worth RM2.15 billion yesterday.

Inter-Pacific Research Sdn Bhd Head of Research, Pong Teng Siew, said the local bourse mirrored the bearish performances of other Asian markets, which were hurt by a weak sentiment.

“Most investors stayed away from the market and were not aggressively buying as before because they could not identify worthy stocks to invest in.

“The weak leads from China and US also affected investor confidence,” he told Bernama here today.

The Finance Index declined 94.21 points to 16,288.32, Plantation Index lost 40.83 points to 8,885.53 and the Industrial Index fell 20.71 points to 3,148.51.

The FBM Emas dropped 93.94 points to 12,511.99, FBMT100 decreased 93 points to 12,179.89, FBM 70 declined 106.16 points to 13,752.45 and the FBM Ace fell 5.5 points to 6,632.89.

Among actives, Tiger Synergy-WA and KNM-WA were flat at seven sen and 20.5 sen, respectively, while Malaysia Airline rose half a sen to 24 sen.

Of the heavyweights, Maybank lost one sen to RM9.50, Tenaga Nasional fell two sen to RM11.92 and CIMB eased nine sen to RM7.

The main market volume fell to 1.06 billion units valued at RM1.95 billion from 1.28 billion units valued at RM1.98 billion yesterday.

Turnover on the ACE market declined to 278.05 million shares worth RM118.07 million from 393.47 million shares worth RM166.03 million yesterday.

Warrants increased to 22.56 million units valued at RM2.86 million from 22.21 million units valued at RM2.19 million previously.

Consumer products accounted for 127.81 million shares traded on the Main Market, industrial products 198.4 million, construction 47.14 million, trade and services 381.36 million, technology 40.65 million, infrastructure 24.61 million, SPAC 44.38 million, finance 49.42 million, hotels 228,200, properties 122.32 million, plantations 19.4 million, mining 27,000, REITs 8.43 million and closed/fund 32,000. — Bernama