KUALA LUMPUR, Nov 28 — The benchmark FTSE Bursa Malaysia KLCI (FBM KLCI) ended lower for the second consecutive day today, dragged down by oil and gas-related heavyweights.

The index was 9.02 points easier at 1,820.89 at 5pm.

Petronas Dagangan and SapuraKencana Petroleum were among the top ten losers, declining 52 sen to RM16.08 and 29 sen to RM2.80 respectively.

A dealer said the local bourse was influenced by the Organisation of Petroleum Exporting Countries (OPEC) meeting yesterday, which decided not to cut production.

“This pushed the price for Brent crude to hover near a four-year low with SapuraKencana and Petronas Dagangan being among the companies affected by it,” he added.

It was also reported that SapuraKencana Petroleum expects to be back on the Securities Commission’s list of Syariah-compliant stocks next year.

The dealer said weak economic data recorded by Japan also dragged down the local market.

The world’s number three economy, Japan recently announced its decision to postpone a sales tax hike to next year, plunging the country into recession.

Japan’s consumer inflation in October stood at 2.9 per cent, from a year ago, matching market forecasts, but weakening from three per cent in the previous month.

On the scoreboard, the FBM Emas Index shed 64.95 points to 12,539.10,the FBMT100 Index lost 57.58 points to 12,227.59, the FBM 70 fell 52.41 points to 13,582.18, the FBM Ace shed 86.22 points to 6,319.75 and the FBM Emas Syariah Index decreased 97.52 points for 13,036.26.

On a sectoral basis, the Finance Index dipped 57.50 points to 16,275.66,But the Industrial Index gained 1.86 points to 3,331.68, and the Plantation Index rose 31.95 points to 8,333.51.

Market breadth was negative with losers outpacing gainers by 609 to 241 with 292 counters unchanged, 562 untraded and 26 others suspended.

Total volume was up at 1.87 billion units worth 1.99 billion from 1.55 billion units worth RM1.36 billion on Thursday.

Of the heavyweights, Maybank declined nine sen to RM9.46, TNB was down four sen to RM14.26, while Public Bank was two sen lower at RM18.58.

Among actives, Sumatec fell one sen to 25.5 sen, Uzma decreased 37 sen to RM2.13, and UMW was 36 sen lower at RM2.83.

Main Market volume increased to 1.35 billion units worth RM1.89 billion from 1.06 billion units worth RM1.24 billion, yesterday.

Turnover on the ACE Market decreased to 429.47 million shares valued at RM90.75 million from 447.32 million shares valued at RM111.21 million.

Warrants rose to 80.38 million units worth RM75.5 million from 34.64 million units worth RM5.43 million previously.

Consumer products accounted for 68.99 million shares traded on the Main Market, industrial products (163.53 million), construction (47.47 million), trade and services (763.99 million), technology (60.31 million), infrastructure (23.24 million), SPAC (74.69 million), finance (48.52 million), hotels (1.73 million), properties (79.25 million), plantations (13.97 million), mining (95,500), REITs (9.24 million) and closed/fund (213,600). — Bernama