KUALA LUMPUR, Oct 26 — Bursa Malaysia ended lower today with sentiment dampened by profit taking in most heavyweight counters, despite the positive performance on the regional bourses, dealers said.

At 5pm, the benchmark index was up 4.14 points at 1,706.79 after hovering between 1,703.09 and 1,715.95 throughout the day.

Market breadth was negative as losers outpaced gainers 466 to 403 while 339 counters were unchanged, 608 untraded and 33 others were suspended.

Volume decreased to 1.91 billion shares, worth RM1.80 billion, from 2.41 billion shares, worth RM2 billion, recorded on Friday.

Most Asian markets reacted positively towards China’s move to cut interest rates, as well as, growing expectation that other major central banks would maintain or expand their already extensive monetary stimulus.

Japanese’s Nikkei 225 Index jumped 121.82 points to 18,947.12, China’s Shanghai Composite Index rose 17.15 points to 3,429.58 while Singapore’s Strait Times added 16.05 points to 3,984.51.

Among top gainers were Oriental Food Industries (+43 sen to RM1.88), BLD Plantation (+25 sen to RM8.35) and Huat Lai Resources (+20 sen to RM3.50).

Top losers, on the other hand, were United Plantations (-40 sen to RM26.40), Petronas Gas (-32 sen to RM23.28) and Kuala Lumpur Kepong (-16 sen to RM23.16).

Heavyweights, Maybank and Axiata slipped two sen each to RM8.57 and RM6.32, respectively, while Public Bank and TNB declined four sen each to RM18.60 and RM12.76, respectively.

Among actives, RGB International perked 1.5 sen to 16.5 sen, Instacom expanded 1.0 sen to 25 sen, China Automobile was flat at 11 sen while XOX eased half-a-sen to 22.5 sen.

On the scoreboard, the FBM Emas Index shed 31.74 points to 11,801.61, the FBM Ace fell 18.03 points to 6,148.80 and the FBM Emas Shariah Index dipped 67.28 points to 12,563.28.

The FBM 70 lost 41.29 points to 12,896.19 and the FBMT100 Index decreased 29.99 points to 11,494.80.

Sector-wise, the Finance Index slid 15.36 points at 14,598.02, the Industrial Index contracted 7.44 points to 3,361.06 but the Plantation Index rose 29.38 points to 7,636.86.

Main Market volume slipped to 1.13 billion units, worth RM1.66 billion, from 1.3 billion units, worth RM1.82 billion, recorded Friday.

Turnover on the ACE Market narrowed to 373.32 million shares, worth RM77.71 million, from 559.05 million shares, worth RM114.48 million, previously.

Warrants decreased to 398.18 million units, valued at RM59.22 million, from 554.47 million units, worth RM78.07 million, registered yesterday.

Consumer products accounted for 99.10 million shares traded on the Main Market, industrial products (235.69 million), construction (115.67 million), trade and services (447 million), technology (30.13 million), infrastructure (18.61 million), SPAC (21 million), finance (34.26 million), hotels (1.56 million), properties (94.18 million), plantations (25.09 million), mining (nil), REITs (12.52 million) and closed/fund (7,000). — Bernama