KUALA LUMPUR, June 23 — Stocks on Bursa Malaysia closed lower today weighed down by selling in small cap counters despite a stronger regional market, dealers said.

At 5 pm, the benchmark FTSE Bursa Malaysia KLCI (FBM KLCI) ended 1.76 points easier at 1,883.96, after fluctuating between 1,881.82 and 1,885.33 throughout the day.

A dealer said the local market failed to take the cue from the firmer regional stock market which was up on upbeat news on China's factory sector and fresh highs on Wall Street, offsetting the uncertainty in Iraq.

"Upbeat news from China and the US fuelled appetite for riskier assets, while crude oil held near nine-month highs as the fighting in Iraq intensified," he said.

On the scoreboard, the Industrial Index declined 2.55 points to 3,226.31, while the Plantation Index added 3.779 points to 9,268.22 and the Finance Index garnered 23.129 points to 17,266.62.

The FBM Emas Index was 9.04 points lower at 13,045.57, the FBMT100 Index eased 11.58 points to 12,674.53, the FBM 70 erased 11.91 points to 14,165.29 and the FBM Ace fell 57.13 points to 6,769.38.

Decliners led advancers 430 to 373, while 336 counters were unchanged, 489 untraded and 16 others suspended.

Total volume rose to 1.76 billion shares worth RM1.94 billion from 1.51 billion shares worth RM2.06 billion on Friday.

Among actives, Asia Media slipped one sen to 9.5 sen while Talam Transform, 1Utopia and Luster Industries were flat at 10.5 sen, six sen and 10.5 sen respectively.

MAS edged up half a sen to 22.5 sen.

Of the heavyweights, Maybank and CIMB were flat at RM9.80 and RM7.33 respectively while Axiata added five sen to RM6.95.

Public Bank lost six sen to RM20.18 and TNB declined four sen to RM11.48. Catcha Media Bhd in a filing to Bursa Malaysia today announced that the company's name will be changed to Rev Asia Bhd effective Wednesday.

Main Market volume rose to 1.33 billion units worth RM1.86 billion compared with Friday's 1.13 billion units valued at RM1.98 billion.

Turnover on the ACE market improved to 353.75 million shares valued at

RM73.44 million from 305.26 million shares worth RM66.62 million previously.

Warrants decreased to 27.47 million units worth RM4.42 million from 40.61 million units worth RM6.95 million.

Consumer products accounted for 666.19 million shares traded on the Main Market, industrial products 281.42 million, construction 84.37 million, trade and services 571.97 million, technology 47.42 million, infrastructure 25.6 million, SPAC 27.01 million, finance 48.08 million, hotels 3.4 million, properties 140.6 million, plantations 12.6 million, mining 55,000, REITs 25.45 million and closed/fund 19,100. — Bernama