KUALA LUMPUR, Sept 29 — Bursa Malaysia ended the day in negative territory on weaker buying sentiment, dealers said.

At 5 pm, the benchmark FTSE Bursa Malaysia KLCI (FBM KLCI) was 5.11 points easier at 1,603.32, after moving between 1,595.22 and 1,604.94 throughout the day.

Losers led gainers by 598 to 227, while 265 counters were unchanged, 738 untraded and 48 others suspended.

Volume rose to 1.69 billion shares valued at RM1.97 billion from 1.64 billion shares valued at RM1.56 billion yesterday.

A dealer said the weaker buying sentiment today was brought about by losses in trade and services as well as finance-linked stocks.

Of the heavyweights, CIMB dropped 10 sen to RM4.53, both Axiata and TNB fell 8 sen each to RM5.71 and RM11.96 respectively, while RHB Capital was 14 sen lower at RM5.88.

A dealer said traders were cautious and remained on the sidelines following weak industrial profits report in China, which weighed on most Asian share markets.

Regionally, Hong Kong’s Hang Seng depreciated 629.72 points to 20,556.60, Japan’s Nikkei 225 dropped 714.27 points to 16,930.84 and China’s Shanghai Composite was 62.62 points lower at 3,038.14.

On the home front, the FBM 70 fell 60.04 points to 12,188.67, FBM Ace declined 62.66 points to 5,504.84, FBM Emas Index slipped 47.82 points to 11,092.90, FBMT100 Index trimmed 38.91 points to 10,813.42 and the FBM Emas Shariah Index went down 47.10 points to 11,780.11.

The Finance Index gave up 111.99 points to 13,8181.23, the Industrial Index eased 4.81 points to 3,103.87 but the Plantation Index rose 16.38 points to 6,987.07.

Main Market volume fell to 938.29 million units worth RM1.79 billion from 1.01 billion units worth RM1.93 billion recorded yesterday.

Turnover on the ACE Market rose to 303.54 million shares worth RM72.87 million versus 257.86 million shares worth RM86.86 million yesterday.

Warrants went down to 450.69 million units worth RM107.74 million from 503.44 million units worth RM105.62 million previously.

Consumer products accounted for 60.84 million shares traded on the Main Market, industrial products (121.59 million), construction (33.42 million), trade and services (345.06 million), technology (24.48 million), infrastructure (16.39 million), SPAC (19.23 million), finance (55.41 million), hotel (819,000), properties (122 million), plantations (28.02 million), mining (95,200), REITs (110.70 million) and closed/fund (29,800). — Bernama