KUALA LUMPUR, July 11 — Bursa Malaysia ended the day lower on continued selling in heavyweight stocks, led by CIMB, Petronas Dagangan and Petronas Gas, dealers said.

At 5pm, the benchmark FTSE Bursa Malaysia KLCI (FBM KLCI) declined 9.47 points to close at an intra-day low of 1,883.15, after reaching a high of 1,894.86, in trading.

Shares of CIMB fell more than three per cent to end trading at RM7 after the company announced plans to acquire two smaller lenders to create the country’s largest bank.

Petronas Dagangan declined RM1.34 or 5.93 per cent to RM21.26, while Petronas Gas shed 58 sen or 2.39 per cent to RM23.72.

Meanwhile, a dealer said most Asian stock markets slipped with safe haven assets staying in demand, as investors waited to see how European stocks respond to the latest outbreak of banking jitters in the region.

The European stocks however, opened firmer, and lower-rated government bond prices edged up on Friday, as markets settled after a broad pullback overnight on concerns about Portugal’s banking sector that highlighted contagion risk in the euro zone, he said.

The Finance Index declined 19.28 points to 17,470.57, the Industrial Index lost 29.89 points to 3,243.81 and the Plantation Index shed 65.77 points for 9,162.07.

The FBM Emas Index slipped 54.82 points to 13,117.34, the FBMT100 Index fell 55.6 points to 12,722.13, the FBM 70 fell 30.75 points to 14,423.76 and the FBM Ace went down 43.29 points to 6,754.33.

Market breadth was negative as decliners outpaced advancers 534 to 289, with 337 counters unchanged, 476 untraded and 20 others suspended.

Total volume rose to 2.04 billion units worth RM2.45 billion from yesterday’s 1.62 billion shares worth RM1.98 billion. 

Among actives, Sumatec Resources added 6.5 sen to 37.5 sen, AirAsia X improved four sen to 73 sen, PUC Founder earned half a sen to 21.5 sen, and KNM Group improved five sen to RM1.06.

Of the heavyweights, Maybank and Public Bank advanced two sen each to RM10 and RM20.08 respectively, TNB climbed eight sen to RM12.54, but Axiata eased one sen to RM6.89.

Main Market volume improved to 1.62 billion units worth RM2.39 billion, from yesterday’s 1.17 billion units worth RM1.91 billion.

Turnover on the ACE market strengthened to 218.41 million shares valued at RM43.84 million from 194.05 million shares valued at RM39.63 million.

Warrants depreciated to 63.8 million units worth RM9.5 million from the 90.66 million units worth RM19.06 million yesteday.

Consumer products accounted for 90.78 million shares traded on the Main Market, industrial products 219.48 million, construction 64.35 million, trade and services 842.81 million, technology 48.4 million, infrastructure 10.75 million, SPAC 15.13 million, finance 180.84 million, hotels 4.4 million, properties 117.37 million, plantations 20.88 million, mining 9,000, REITs 7.48 million and closed/fund 11,000. — Bernama