KUALA LUMPUR, Aug 10 — Persistent selling across the board particularly in heavyweight counters dragged Bursa Malaysia to close sharply lower today, dealers said.

The FTSE Bursa Malaysia KLCI (FBM KLCI) fell 28.28 points to close at 1,654.37, after fluctuating between 1,649.12 and 1,672.57 throughout the day.

A dealer said the market confidence remained fragile amid weak internal and external sentiments such as the Chinese economic slowdown, prospects of the Federal Reserve’s interest hike in September, bearish commodities prices and local political woes.

The FBM KLCI failed to defend its 1,660 lower support level today, which prompted a further slump towards the 1,650 and 1,632 levels, he added.

On the local scoreboard, the FBM Emas Index declined 210.97 points to 11,364.95, FBMT100 Index fell 191.78 points to 11,076.49 and the FBM Syariah dropped 232.62 points to 11,770.73.

The FBM 70 went down 220.10 points to 12,186.38 and the FBM Ace slipped 226.94 points to 5,793.20.

On a sectoral basis, the Finance Index lost 270.31 points to 14,948.14, the Plantation Index slid 47.31 points to 7,180.53 and the Industrial Index declined 40.18 points to 3,166.25.

Decliners overwhelmed advancers by 923 to 94, with 174 counters unchanged, 607 untraded and 19 others suspended.

Total volume rose to 1.91 billion units valued at RM1.99 billion from 1.86 billion units valued at RM1.79 billion on Friday.

Among the top losers, British American Tobacco fell RM1 sen to RM63, Malaysian Pacific Industries slipped 52 sen to RM6.49, Guinness shed 44 sen to RM13.56, and both Time Dotcom and TNB lost 40 sen each to RM6.20 and RM11 respectively.

Among actives, Frontken shed two sen to 22.5 sen, IFCA MSC slipped five sen to 77 sen, Sumatec shed one sen to 15 sen, and RGB International was flat at 13.5 sen.

Of the heavyweights, Maybank declined 16 sen to RM8.80, Public Bank fell 20 sen to RM18.88, Sime Darby slipped 10 sen to RM8.40 and Axiata shed four sen to RM5.96.

Main Market volume rose to 1.10 billion shares worth RM1.81 billion against Friday’s 1.05 million shares worth RM1.63 billion.

Turnover on the ACE Market decreased to 336.85 million units valued at RM73.48 million from 479.47 million units valued at RM89.41 million previously.

Warrants improved to 471.87 million shares worth RM103.63 million from 324.45 million shares worth RM75.12 million on Friday.

Consumer products accounted for 107.06 million shares traded on the Main Market, industrial products (234.46 million), construction (77.28 million), trade and services (425.54 million), technology (63.85 million), infrastructure (11.45 million), SPAC (13.63 million), finance (77.21 million), hotels (898,800), properties (64.81 million), plantations (12.26 million), mining (20,000), REITs (13.04 million), and closed/fund (11,100). — Bernama