KUALA LUMPUR, April 1 — Share prices on Bursa Malaysia turned mixed at the close today as gains in selected heavyweights limited losses, dealers said.

At 5pm, the benchmark FTSE Bursa Malaysia KLCI (FBM KLCI) stood at 1,847.76, down 1.45 points, after hovering between 1,842.06 and 1,847.76.

Petronas Gas and Axiata contributed 2.5 points to the FBM KLCI’s total, in improving 40 sen and 7 sen each to RM24.20 and RM6.74 respectively.

A dealer said regional stocks traded mixed amid positive sentiment, after China’s official Purchasing Managers’ Index survey showed manufacturing continued to expand in March, and on dovish comments from US Federal Reserve chairman Janet Yellen.

Gainers outpaced losers 446 to 348 while 331 counters were unchanged, 483 untraded and 13 others suspended.

Turnover rose to 1.98 billion shares worth RM2.05 billion from 1.94 billion shares valued at RM2.38 billion yesterday.

On the scoreboard, the Industrial Index shed 1.21 points to 3,190.91, the Plantation Index 8.65 points to 8,931.57 and the Finance Index 5.22 points to 16,625.61.

The FBM Emas Index declined 7.2 points to 12,790.44, the FBMT100 Index 13.12 points to 12,444.85, with the FBM 70 slipping 27.87 points to 13,963.04. But the FBM Ace rose 89.19 points to 6,750.49. Among actives, Ingenuity Consolidated was flat at 10 sen and Xidelang eased 2 sen to 26.5 sen, but Masterskill Education rose 6 sen to 49 sen and Managepay Systems gained 3 sen to 30 sen.

As for the heavyweights, Maybank eased 1 sen to RM9.67, Sime Darby declined 5 sen to RM9.26 and Tenaga was flat at RM11.96. CIMB improved 1 sen to RM7.16.

Main market volume narrowed to 1.31 billion units valued at RM1.87 billion from 1.49 billion units worth RM2.25 billion yesterday.

Turnover on the ACE market increased to 621.68 million shares worth RM170.79 million from yesterday’s 383.3 million shares valued at RM102.62 million.

Warrants slipped to 44.93 million units valued at RM13.33 million from 65.2 million units worth RM20.29 million yesterday.

Consumer products accounted for 224.44 million shares traded on the Main Market, industrial products 144.53 million, construction 49.76 million, trade and services 458.53 million, technology 113.79 million, infrastructure 16.71 million, SPAC 42.06 million, finance 65.15 million, hotels 606,400, properties 163.88 million, plantations 15.71 million, mining 15,700, REITs 10.23 million and closed/fund 144,000. — Bernama