KUALA LUMPUR, Aug 25 — Bursa Malaysia closed lower today on losses in selected blue-chips as the market took a breather, dealers said.

At 5pm, the benchmark FTSE Bursa Malaysia KLCI (FBM KLCI) declined 8.68 points to 1,862.31 despite a positive start to the day.

The FBM KLCI moved between 1,859.58 and 1,873.66 points throughout the day, after opening 1.93 points higher at 1,872.92.

A dealer said the FBM KLCI was expected to take a breather and would ease towards the 1,861 level this week on lack of domestic catalysts and uninspiring earnings season so far.

Among the top losers, Petronas Dagangan shed 70 sen to RM21, Hong Leong Financial fell 60 sen to RM17.40, Petronas Gas dropped 54 sen to RM22.28 and Kuala Lumpur Kepong eased 44 sen to RM22.10.

On the scoreboard, the Finance Index declined 64.189 points to 17,382.24, Industrial Index parted 24.41 points to 3,235.86 and the Plantation Index fell 119.94 points to 8,470.35.

The FBM Emas Index was 68.46 points lower at 13,013.8, FBMT100 Index dropped 62.91 points to 12,55.1, FBM 70 decreased 87.58 points to 14,282.89 and the FBM Ace fell 88.99 points to 6,984.62.

Losers thrashed gainers by 637 to 276 while 261 counters were unchanged, 462 untraded and 14 others were suspended.

Total volume declined to 3.008 billion units worth RM1.97 billion from 3.314 billion units worth RM2.26 billion on Friday.

Among the active counters, Sumatec fell three sen to 47.5 sen, Globaltec and Nexgram slipped half a sen each to 11 sen and 13.5 sen respectively and PDZ lost two sen to 33 sen. IFSA MSC gained 8.5 sen to 35 sen.

Of the heavyweights, Public Bank added two sen to RM19.34 and CIMB gained three sen to RM7.19.

Maybank lost two sen to RM10.08 and TNB fell eight sen to RM12.42. Axiata was flat at RM6.95.

The Main Market volume fell to 2.18 billion units worth RM1.79 billion from 2.70 billion units worth RM2.15 billion on Friday.

Turnover on the ACE Market rose to 772.17 million shares valued at RM171.6 million from 551 million shares valued at RM94.14 million.

Warrants edged up to 37.47 million units worth RM4.7 million from 34.24 million units worth RM4.08 million previously. Consumer products accounted for 203.22 million shares traded on the Main Market, industrial products (503 million), construction (66.51 million), trade and services (963.1 million), technology (38.53 million), infrastructure (6.08 million), SPAC (99.46 million), finance (37.24 million), hotels (1.71 million), properties (234.01 million), plantations (26.39 million), mining (273,000), REITs (3.38 million), and closed/fund (42,200). — Bernama