KUALA LUMPUR, Dec 3 ― Share prices on Bursa Malaysia ended lower today on persistent selling by foreign funds, dealers said.

A dealer said some selling were triggered by downgrades by certain research houses which gave 'underperform' ratings to selective counters.         

At 5pm, the benchmark FTSE Bursa Malaysia KLCI (FBM KLCI) stood at 1,758.15, down 27.82 points, after opening 2.18 points higher at 1,788.15.

The benchmark index moved between 1,758.15 and 1,789.04 throughout the day.          

The selldown was concentrated in the banking sector and selective oil and gas-linked stocks.

AMMB Holdings fell four sen to RM6.42 and Hong Leong Bank eased four sen to RM13.98. Petronas Gas and Petronas Chemical declined 20 sen each to RM20.90 and RM5.30, respectively.

“I am optimistic that recovery is on its way as soon as foreign selling eases,” an analyst told Bernama.

The FBM Emas Index decreased 168.68 points to 12,087.35, FBMT100 Index contracted 161.92 points to 11,807.82, FBM 70 went down 83.25 points to 13,122.02, FBM Ace eased 121 points to 5,975.93 and the FBM Emas Syariah Index trimmed 133.87 points to 12,516.8.            

On sectoral basis, the Finance Index decreased 305.46 points to 15,648.63, Industrial Index eased 34.5 points to 3,203.66 and the Plantation Index lost 83.46 points to 8,081.04.

Market breadth was negative with losers led gainers by 678 to 197, while 250 counters were unchanged, 576 untraded and nine others suspended.               

Total volume slipped to 1.56 billion units worth RM1.97 billion from 2.16 billion units worth RM2.18 billion yesterday.

Of the heavyweights, Maybank fell 26 sen to RM8.95, TNB contracted 22 sen to RM13.78 and Public Bank was down 12 sen to RM18.20.       

Among actives, Perisai Petroleum Teknologi decreased six sen to 50.5 sen, Minetech Resources was flat at 11 sen, IFCA MSC eased four sen to 74 sen, Sumatec Resources fell half-a-sen to 23 sen and KNM lost 1.5 sen to 45.5 sen.

Main Market volume decreased to 1.09 billion units worth RM1.85 billion to to 1.49 billion units worth RM2.01 billion yesterday.

Turnover on the ACE Market fell to 380.61 million shares valued at RM106.89 million from 558.49 million shares valued at RM148.83 million yesterday.

Warrants eased to 87.25 million units worth RM14.14 million from 108.5 million units worth RM14.86 million previously.

Consumer products accounted for 47.75 million shares traded on the Main Market, industrial products (165.71 million), construction (43.61 million), trade and services (560.36 million), technology (52.76 million), infrastructure (16.9 million), SPAC (31.11 million), finance (54.15 million), hotels (368,300), properties (98.62 million), plantations (12.94 million), mining (249,800), REITs (4.27 million) and closed/fund (15,900). ― Bernama