KUALA LUMPUR, April 13 — The benchmark FTSE Bursa Malaysia KLCI (FBM KLCI) pared earlier gains to close 2.23 points lower at 1,842.08, after  range-bound trading with buying interest interspersed with profit-taking in heavyweight stocks.

The key index, which moved in a tight range of 6.59 points, had fluctuated narrowly between a low of 1,840.91 and 1,847.50.

On the broader market, gainers outnumbered losers by 467 to 378, with 319 stocks unchanged, 638 untraded and 12 suspended.

“That gave a market breadth of 1.23 indicating the bulls were still in control,” said one local dealer, adding profit-taking activity was observed among heavyweight stocks in the second session.

Among FBM KLCI components, IHH Healthcare led the laggards, dipping 16 sen to RM5.81, while Genting lost 22 sen to RM9.01, Tenaga shed six sen to RM14.44, Telekom edged down nine sen to RM7.40 and YTL Corp declined three sen to RM1.66.

Meanwhile, buying support for the key index came from blue chips like MISC, that jumped 17 sen to RM9.13, while Genting Malaysia climbed 19 sen to RM4.61, Maybank added eight sen to RM9.451, and Petronas Chemicals and SapuraKencana gained six sen to RM5.70 and RM2.40, respectively.

Total volume increased to 2.12 billion shares worth RM1.87 billion from 1.85 billion units worth RM1.8 billion last Friday.

On other scoreboards, the FBM Emas Index was 14.36 points lower at 12,648.10, the FBMT100 Index declined 19.26 points to 12,329.49 and the FBM Emas Syariah Index slipped 39.85 points to 13,175.76.

The FBM Ace jumped 36.10 points to 7,160.40 while the FBM 70 shed 37.73 points to 13,541.44.

On a sectorial basis, the Finance Index gained 34.00 points to 16,359.86, the Industrial Index added 4.96 points to 3,406.08 but the Plantation Index trimmed 27.06 points to 7,767.49.

Among actively traded stocks, Frontken inched up one sen to 22.5 sen, Kanger slipped one sen to 32.5 sen, Kronologi added four sen to 39 sen, Privasia gained 2.5 sen to 38.5 sen, while Sumatec went up half-a-sen to 22 sen.

Main Market volume expanded to 1.31 billion units worth RM1.67 billion, from last Friday’s 1.18 billion shares worth RM1.64 billion.

Turnover on the ACE Market surged to 743.70 million shares valued at RM189.02 million, from 579.53 million units valued at RM140.76 million previously.

Warrants declined to 66.00 million units worth RM10.89 million from Friday’s 92.46 million shares worth RM19.67 million.

Consumer products accounted for 149.62 million shares traded on the Main Market, industrial products (220.56 million), construction (94.57 million), trade and services (596.56 million), technology (67.54 million), infrastructure (15.14 million), SPAC (4.91 million), finance (68.83 million), hotels (4.98 million), properties (67.48 million), plantations (9.07 million), mining (57,000), REITs (7.39 million), and closed/fund (33,800). — Bernama