KUALA LUMPUR, July 30 — Bursa Malaysia ended almost flat today after a flurry of last-minute selling erased some of earlier gains, dealers said.

At 5pm, the FTSE Bursa Malaysia KLCI (FBM KLCI) inched up 0.93 of a point to 1,699.92 after fluctuating between 1,695.66 and 1,706.26 throughout the day.

A dealer said some traders took the opportunity to sell their stocks when the market was up after seven straight days of losses.

Losers outpaced gainers 401 to 383, with 354 counters unchanged, 681 untraded and 41 others suspended.

Total volume rose to 1.61 billion units valued at RM1.58 billion from 1.36 billion units worth RM1.73 billion yesterday.

On the scoreboard, the FBM Emas Index climbed 2.29 points to 11,757.41, the FBMT100 Index inched up 0.8 point to 11,428.3 and the FBM Syariah expanded 24.41 points to 12,255.79.

The FBM 70 lost 19.46 points to 12,747.57 and the FBM Ace fell 30.76 points to 6,289.62.

On a sectoral basis, the Finance Index shed 44.78 points to 15,248.25 and the Plantation Index went down 6.57 points to 7,332.35, while the Industrial Index jumped 24.78 points to 3,191.73.

Among actives, Pesona Metro advanced 4.5 sen to 64 sen and Xidelang earned one sen to 18.5 sen.

Lee Swee Kiat lost two sen to 36 sen, IFCA MSC shed six sen to 98 sen and Jaks slipped half a sen to 95.5 sen.

Of the heavyweights, Maybank lost seven sen to RM8.99 while TNB and Axiata erased two sen each to RM12.12 and RM6.28 respectively.

Public Bank added four sen to RM18.88 and Sime Darby chalked up 18 sen to RM8.60.

Main Market volume rose to 1.13 billion units worth RM1.44 billion from Wednesday’s 966.49 million units worth RM1.61 billion.

Turnover on the ACE Market increased to 252.8 million shares valued at RM70.4 million from 118.1 million shares valued at RM46.76 million yesterday.

Warrants expanded to 226.1 million units worth RM66.59 million from 213.68 million units worth RM67.95 million previously.

Consumer products accounted for 164.01 million shares traded on the Main Market, industrial products (249.81 million), construction (205.88 million), trade and services (282.34 million), technology (81.05 million), infrastructure (9.75 million), SPAC (20.55 million), finance (41.41 million), hotels (880,400), properties (67.61 million), plantations (8.12 million), mining (48,400), REITs (6.83 million), and closed/fund (nil). — Bernama