KUALA LUMPUR, March 16 — Last minute selling in selected blue chips and small capitalisation counters caused the benchmark FTSE Bursa Malaysia KLCI (FBM KLCI) to close lower today.

The key index, which had hovered in positive territory earlier, ended at  1,780.54, down 1.21 points from last Friday’s close of 1,781.75.

It fluctuated between 1,774.30 and 1,787.29 throughout the day.

A dealer said the local bourse fell 10 minutes before trading ended as profit-taking emerged to curb gains and ahead of the two-day Federal Open Market Committee meeting, which begins tomorrow.

“The meeting will indicate if the Fed plans to increase interest rates in the United States and likely affect Bursa Malaysia,” he added.

Of the heavyweights, Maybank fell one sen to RM9.09, TNB was down two sen to RM14.62, while Public Bank and Axiata were flat RM18.34 and RM7.03 respectively.

Among the most actively-traded stocks, Sumatec inched down half a sen to 24.5 sen and Eti Tech added one sen for 12.5 sen, while Wintoni gained 3.5 sen to 40.5 sen.But Nexgram was flat at 12 sen.

Market breadth was negative as losers outpaced gainers 504 to 294 with 303 counters unchanged, 666 untraded and 18 others suspended.

Total volume was slightly higher at 2.46 billion shares worth RM1.90 billion from 2.96 billion shares worth RM1.82 billion last Friday.

The FBM Emas Index shed 24.09 points to 12,260.96, the FBMT100 Index depreciated 20.93 points to 11,945.56 and the FBM Ace trimmed 47.10 points to 7,088.19.

The FBM Emas Shariah Index was 14.05 points lower at 12,864.84 and the FBM 70 decreased 72.48 points to 13,226.92.

On a sectoral basis, the Industrial Index eased 1.4 points to 3,261.05, as the Plantation Index slid 17,34 points to 7,753.45 and the Finance Index dropped 4.96 points for 15,853.76.

Main Market volume increased to 1.59 billion units worth RM1.72 billion from 1.37 billion units worth RM1.55 billion last Friday.

Turnover on the ACE Market was lower at 780.12 million shares valued at RM164.67 million against 1.49 billion shares valued at RM255.41 million previously.

Warrants depreciated to 73.93 million units worth RM11.23 million versus 84.76 million units worth RM13.14 million.

Consumer products accounted for 90.44 million shares traded on the Main Market, industrial products (319.88 million), construction (71.57 million), trade and services (742.88 million), technology (186.75 million), infrastructure (12.73 million), SPAC (25.03 million), finance (33.23 million), hotels (8.04 million), properties (79.73 million), plantations (11.30 million), mining (0), REITs (9.53 million) and closed/fund (14,900). — Bernama