KUALA LUMPUR, Aug 18 — Shares on Bursa Malaysia closed mostly easier today as the market consolidated and take breather from last week’s gains, dealers said.  

At the close, the benchmark FTSE Bursa Malaysia (FBM KLCI) finished 2.56 points easier at 1,861.75, after fluctuating between 1,859.46 and 1,864.2 points throughout the day.

Overall, market volume remained buoyant due to persistent buying interest in lower-liners, ACE and penny stocks while the mid- and big-capitalised stocks continued to consolidate, a dealer said.

Regionally, Japan’s Nikkei 225 firmed to 15,322.6, Hong Kong’s Hang Seng climbed to 24,955.46 and Singapore’s Straits Times Index eased to 3,309.6.           

On the scoreboard, the Finance Index rose 32.682 points to 17,324.46 but the Industrial Index decreased 13.34 points to 3,244.08 and the Plantation Index fell 60.979 points to 8,808.32.

The FBM Emas Index was 8.58 points lower at 13,049.77, FBMT100 Index eased 14.96 points to 12,598.72, FBM Ace declined 3.1 points to 7,279.64 and the FBM 70 dwindled 7.89 points to 14,365.38.

Gainers outnumbered losers by 454 to 437 while 300 counters were unchanged, 447 untraded and 19 others were suspended.

Total volume increased to 3.58 billion units worth RM2.47 billion from 3.41 billion units worth RM2.34 billion last Friday. 

Among actives, PDZ Holdings firmed 4.5 sen to 31.5 sen, Sumatec Resources rose four sen to 59 sen and Globaltec formation finished one sen higher at 10.5 sen.

Of the heavyweights, Public Bank gained one sen to RM19.24, Axiata added one sen to RM6.96, Maybank shed two sen to RM10.02 and CIMB lost two sen to RM6.94.

The Main Market volume increased to 2.79 billion units worth RM2.32 billion from 2.16 billion units worth RM2.09 billion last Friday.

Turnover on the ACE Market shrank to 620.78 million shares valued at RM118.82 million from last week’s 635.59 million shares valued at RM112.79 million.   

Warrants plummet to 158.41 million units worth RM26.695 million from 604.86 million units, worth RM142.06 million, recorded last Friday.           

Consumer products accounted for 183.38 million shares traded on the Main Market, industrial products (777.20 million), construction (100.55 million), trade and services (1.22 billion), technology (74.515 million), infrastructure (10.86 million), SPAC (117.07 million), finance (54.32 million), hotels (2.62 million), properties (220.10 million), plantations (23.87 million), mining (146,500), REITs (7.57 million), and closed/fund (3,00). — Bernama