KUALA LUMPUR, Dec 21 — Bursa Malaysia continued its profit taking to finish easier today, bucking the regional trend, with losses mostly seen in heavyweights, dealers said.

The benchmark FTSE Bursa Malaysia KLCI (FBM KLCI) fell 14.81 points to close at 1,629.09 after fluctuating between 1,627.63 and 1,641.92 throughout the day.

Inter-Pacific Research Sdn Bhd Head of Research Pong Teng Siew said most blue-chip stocks went down, including British American Tobacco due to the publicity over electronic and smuggled cigarettes.

“There was also news about Aeon closing its Aeon Big outlet in Seremban, Negeri Sembilan, by year-end, which has affected Aeon Credit shares,” he told Bernama today.

Another dealer said most Asian stocks rose today, defying a weakening Wall Street, while the price of Brent crude plummeted to an 11-year low on renewed worries over a global oil glut.

Of the heavyweights, Maybank fell 7.0 sen to RM8.21, Public Bank declined 8.0 sen to RM18.24, Petronas Chemicals shed 6.0 sen to RM6.94 while TNB was flat at RM13.

Among actives, Comintel Corp added 7.5 sen to 71.5 sen, Emico advanced 14.5 sen to 41 sen, RGB International was flat at 18.5 sen while China Automobile eased half-a-sen to 7.5 sen.

Market breadth was negative as decliners outpaced advancers by 521 to 325, while 313 counters were unchanged, 588 untraded and 15 others suspended.

Total volume rose to 1.83 billion shares worth RM1.57 billion from 1.74 billion shares worth RM2.16 billion on Friday.

The FBM Emas Index fell 77.37 points to 11,407.05, the FBMT100 Index eased 77.55 points to 11,080.69 and the FBM Emas Shariah Index declined 62 points to 12,329.05.

The FBM 70 fell by 6.81 points to 12,832.26 and the FBM Ace was 23.82 points lower at 6,310.05.

Sector-wise, the Industrial Index dipped 41.11 points to 3,153.68, the Plantation Index lost 61.33 points to 7,352.66 and the Finance Index weakened by 144.11 points to 13,895.35.

Main Market volume rose to 1.26 billion units worth RM1.45 billion from 1.08 billion units worth RM2.0 billion on Friday.

Turnover on the ACE Market declined to 328.93 million shares valued at RM82.85 million versus 375.79 million shares valued at RM95.16 million.

Warrants fell to 237.46 million units worth RM43.34 million against 290.97 million units worth RM56.56 million previously.

Consumer products accounted for 216.51 million shares traded on the Main Market, industrial products (396.68 million), construction (36.76 million), trade and services (358.21 million), technology (58.34 million), infrastructure (10.72 million), SPAC (60.03 million), finance (27.41 million), hotels (814,500), properties (80.73 million), plantations (8.32 million), mining (2,500), REITs (7.98 million) and closed/fund (144,000). — Bernama