KUALA LUMPUR, April 5 — Bursa Malaysia reversed yesterday’s gains to finish lower today on profit taking, following a sluggish performance on regional equity markets against a backdrop of slumping crude oil prices, a dealer said.

The benchmark FTSE Bursa Malaysia KLCI (FBM KLCI) contracted 7.16 points to 1,718.08 from yesterday’s close of 1,725.24.

The market bellwether, which opened 6.24 points weaker at 1,719.00, moved between 1,716.42 and 1,722.13 throughout the day.

Decliners outpaced gainers 453 to 364, with 376 counters unchanged, 516 untraded and 19 others suspended.

Volume rose to 1.71 billion shares valued at RM1.94 billion from 1.50 billion shares valued at RM1.73 billion yesterday.

Global benchmark Brent Crude gave up 98 cents or 2.5 per cent to US$37.69 (RM150) per barrel, which led to a fall in the overnight performance of Wall Street and weakening of the ringgit.

The dealer said regional markets, including Malaysia’s equity market, were down due to the floundering oil price and traders anxiously waiting for the Federal Open Market Committee minutes.

The FBM KLCI earlier was also affected by the overnight news about US indices closing lower.

Hong Leong Investment Bank in a note said oil prices dropped further, as investors doubted whether producing countries would reach an agreement to freeze stockpiles, to address a persistent global supply glut.

On the local front, among heavyweights, KLCC Property and Reit eased three sen to RM7.13, PPB Group lost 26 sen to RM16.44, Digi.com fell five sen to RM4.88, MISC Group declined four sen to RM8.88 and Maxis dropped five sen to RM6.37, but IHH Healthcare gained one sen to RM6.63.

As for active stocks, Eka Noodles inched up half-a-sen to 13.5 sen, Vivocom International eased half-a-sen to 29.5 sen, AirAsia increased four sen to RM1.97 and AirAsia X perked 1.5 sen to 30.5 sen.

Among the heavy losers, Genting reduced 26 sen to RM9.56, while Hong Leong Bank and Frased & Neave each declined 22 sen to RM13.40 and RM20.68 respectively.

Regionally, Japan’s Nikkei 225 shed 2.42 per cent to 15,732.82 and Singapore’s Straits Times contracted 1.45 per cent to 2,794.23.

The FBM Emas Index slid 31.25 points to 11,937.57, the FBMT100 Index shed 33.10 points to 11,635.07 and the FBM Emas Shariah Index fell 11.78 points to 12,524.87.

The FBM 70 accumulated 17.42 points to 13,291.92 but the FBM Ace lost 33.56 points to 5,668.28.

Sector-wise, the Finance Index slid 76.90 points to 14,776.11, the Industrial Index decreased 11.41 points to 3,265.37 and the Plantation Index reduced 29.34 points to 7.845.69.

Main Market turnover expanded to 1.22 billion units worth RM1.85 billion from yesterday’s 938.85 million units worth RM1.64 billion.

Turnover on the ACE Market contracted to 272.55 million shares valued at RM60.45 million from 324.72 million shares valued at RM62.84 million previously.

Warrants were lower at 219.16 million units worth RM31.53 million against 231.37 million units worth RM20.56 million.

Consumer products accounted for 119.29 million shares traded on the Main Market, industrial products (244.33 million), construction (92.87 million), trade and services (566.74 million), technology (23.47 million), infrastructure (9.99 million), SPAC (33.91 million), finance (44.88 million), hotels (753 million), properties (51.59 million), plantations (22.62 million), mining (0), REITs (7.23 million) and closed/fund (8,000).