KUALA LUMPUR, Nov 6 — Bursa Malaysia settled the day lower on  last-minute selling in selected bluechips, in line with the weaker Asian markets dampened by overall weak sentiment.

At 5pm, the benchmark FTSE Bursa Malaysia KLCI (FBM KLCI) declined 2.84 points to end at 1,685.70 after moving between 1,685.08 and 1,693.07 throughout the day.

Gainers thumped losers by 499 to 388 while 342 counters were unchanged, 572 untraded and 15 others suspended.

Volume increased to 2.28 billion shares worth RM2.02 billion from 2.18 billion shares worth RM2.17 billion yesterday.

Inter-Pacific Research Sdn Bhd Head of Research Pong Teng Siew said TNB was one of the biggest losers followed by Malaysian Pacific Industries and Top Glove Corp.

He said the local market vacillated between gains and losses earlier this morning.

Pong said although small-cap and mid-cap stocks performed quite well, investors were still in holding mode, on expectations that government-owned fund manager ValueCap Sdn Bhd will start investing in the equity market in late November or early December.

“No one is selling ahead of that. Once the investment starts to come in then we can expect the market to climb,” he told Bernama.

Asian shares fell today as investors braced for US employment data that is expected to set the tone for a possible Federal Reserve interest rate hike as early as next month.

On the scoreboards, the FBM Emas Index gained 1.14 points to 11,733.88, the FBM Emas Syariah Index advanced 19.42 points to 12,585.36 and the FBM Ace Index improved 32.56 points to 6,436.44.

The FBM 70 Index chalked up 50.81 points to 12,998.05 and the FBMT100 Index fell 4.05 points to 11,407.18.

Sector-wise, the Finance Index decreased 3.10 points to 14,330.03, the Industrial Index increased 7.56 points to 3,327.37 and the Plantation Index perked 72.20 points to 7,704.74.

Of the heavyweights, Maybank eased three sen to RM8.35, TNB fell 10 sen to RM13.10, Public Bank gained four sen to RM18.24 and Axiata increased one sen to RM6.16.

Among losers, Tasek Corp fell 30 sen to RM14.46, Apollo erased 25 sen to RM5.0, Malaysian Pacific was 15 sen lower at RM7.04 and Top Glove contracted 10 sen to RM9.40.

Main Market volume advanced to 1.46 billion units worth RM1.87 billion from 1.36 billion units worth RM2.03 billion on Thursday.

Turnover on the ACE Market fell to 508.65 million shares worth RM102.56 million from 553.91 million shares worth RM98.09 million yesterday.

Warrants increased to 302.72 million units valued at RM43.28 million from 269.52 million units worth RM42.34 million previously.

Consumer products accounted for 1.13 billion shares traded on the Main Market, industrial products (295.45 million), construction (94.31 million), trade and services (605.51 million), technology (71.57 million), infrastructure (13.83 million), SPAC (9.10 million), finance (62.72 million), hotels (2.08 million), properties (158.63 million), plantations (30.77 million), mining (10,000), REITs (5.96 million), and closed/fund (39,900). — Bernama