KUALA LUMPUR, April 9 — Bursa Malaysia closed on almost flat note today, with the benchmark index, FTSE Bursa Malaysia KLCI (FBM KLCI), down 0.92 of a point to 1,849.39 points.

The barometer index fluctuated between 1,843.99 and 1,849.77 throughout the day, with selling mostly seen in blue-chips and selected heavyweights.

PPB Group dragged down the composite index by 1.77 points. The stock fell 56 sen, or 3.54 per cent, to RM15.28 with 324,000 shares traded.

Inter-Pacific Research Sdn Bhd head of research, Pong Teng Siew, said the gains in small-capitalised stocks helped mitigate losses caused by selling in blue-chips, particularly in banking- and oil and gas-related stocks.

Maybank fell six sen to RM9.49, Public Bank erased 14 sen to RM19.12, and Petronas Gas eased four sen to RM23.

“Local fund managers took a breather today after the surge in buying last week. The upward momentum is expected to come back strongly next week as regional sentiment remains firm,” he told Bernama.

He said corporate earning season, which would start in the third week of this month, would help stabilise the market and provide some direction for demand.

On the scoreboard, the FBM Emas Index increased 5.14 points to 12,687.25 FBMT100 Index added 0.67 point to 12,373.93, FBM Ace rose 26.04 points to 7,141.47 and the FBM 70 garnered 27.09 points to 13,572.75.

However, the FBM Emas Syariah Index slipped 0.43 of a point to 13,218.18 but on a sectoral basis, the Finance Index fell 42.08 points to 16,420.45 and the Industrial Index trimmed 7.77 points to 3,388.87.

The Plantation Index advanced 43.6 points to 7,817.66.

Gainers thumped losers by 478 to 383, while 315 counters were unchanged, 637 untraded and 12 others suspended.

Total volume fell to 1.8 billion units worth RM1.79 billion from yesterday’s 1.82 billion units worth RM1.88 billion.

Of the heavyweights, Sime Darby gained three sen to RM9.30 and TNB and Axiata were flat at RM14.56 and RM7.06 respectively.

Among actives, Netx inched up half-a-sen to eight sen and Frontken added one sen to 19 sen. Ingenuity fell half-a-sen to eight sen.

Main Market volume was marginally lower at 1.10 billion shares worth RM1.65 billion against 1.10 billion shares worth RM1.73 billion yesterday.

Turnover on the ACE Market decreased to 610.70 million units valued at RM126 million from 643.48 million units valued at RM145.67 million yesterday.

Warrants rose to 83.68 million shares worth RM13.55 million from 67.98 million shares worth RM11.81 million previously.    

Consumer products accounted for 127.47 million shares traded on the Main Market, industrial products (195.55 million), construction (74.27 million), trade and services (383.27 million), technology (77.50 million), infrastructure (10.31 million), SPAC (31.18 million), finance (71.10 million), hotels (2.55 million), properties (110.72 million), plantations (9.77 million), mining (27,000), REITs (6.55 million), and closed/fund (16,000). — Bernama