KUALA LUMPUR, April 8 — The benchmark FTSE Bursa Malaysia KLCI (FBM KLCI) ended lower today on persistent profit taking in heavyweights amid bullish performance on the regional market, dealers said.

The key index closed at 1,850.31, down 6.20 points, after moving between 1,848 and 1,853.21 throughout the trading day.

Hong Leong Bank lost 28 sen or 1.92 per cent to RM14.32 while Telekom Malaysia dipped 13 sen or 1.71 per cent to RM7.47.

Most Asian markets rose on Wednesday after the Bank of Japan (BoJ) lived up to expectations by keeping its massive monetary stimulus intact as well as affirming its moderate economy recovery is heading in a positive direction.

Gainers, however, outpaced losers by 427 to 372, while 359 counters were unchanged, 645 untraded and 19 others suspended.

Total volume was lower at 1.82 billion units worth RM1.88 billion from Tuesday’s 1.95 billion units worth RM2.10 billion.

As for other heavyweights, Maybank and TNB were flat at to RM9.55 and RM14.56, respectively, Public Bank slipped two sen to RM19.26 while Axiata declined one sen to RM7.06.

Of the active stocks, NETX Holdings, Privasia and Nova MSC were flat at 7.5 sen, 38 sen and 18.5 sen, respectively, while DGB Asia earned half-a-sen to 12.5 sen.

On the scoreboard, the FBM Emas Index fell 23.76 points to 12,682.11, the FBMT100 Index shed 30.50 points to 12,373.26 while the FBM Ace lost 77.27 points to 7,115.43.

The FBM Emas Syariah Index went down 18.02 points to 13,218.61 but the FBM 70 garnered 9.18 points to 13,545.66.

On a sectoral basis, the Industrial Index gave up 6.81 points to 3,396.64, the Finance Index trimmed 48.65 points to 16,462.53 while the Plantation Index was 38.57 points weaker at 7,774.06.

Main Market volume decreased to 1.10 billion shares worth RM1.73 billion from Tuesday’s 1.21 billion shares worth RM1.94 billion.

Turnover on the ACE Market fell to 643.48 million units valued at RM145.67 million from 657.02 million units valued at RM144.82 million yesterday.

Warrants rose to 67.98 million shares worth RM11.81 million from 73.44 million shares worth RM13.46 million previously.

Consumer products accounted for 152.29 million shares traded on the Main Market, industrial products (190.30 million), construction (108.17 million), trade and services (391.66 million), technology (88.10 million), infrastructure (111.25 million), SPAC (13.554 million), finance (40.83 million), hotels (5.26 million), properties (72.50 million), plantations (14.87 million), mining (nil), REITs (11.43 million), and closed/fund (8,100). — Bernama