KUALA LUMPUR, Aug 24 — Bursa Malaysia closed lower today amid a weaker ringgit against the US dollar and declining crude oil prices, dealers said.

At 5 pm, the FTSE Bursa Malaysia KLCI (FBM KLCI) eased 1.01 points to close at 1,682.06 against yesterday’s close of 1,683.07.

It opened 2.90 points weaker at 1,680.17 and moved between 1,678.93 and 1,684.39 throughout the day.

Losers outpaced gainers by 518 to 253, while 429 counters were unchanged, 488 untraded and 18 others suspended.

Volume rose to 1.93 billion units worth RM1.77 billion from Tuesday’s 1.83 billion units worth RM1.73 billion.

A dealer said Brent, the global benchmark for crude, fell 1.5 per cent to US$49.22 per barrel after an unexpected increase in US crude stocks revived concerns about the supply glut that has capped prices for the past two years.

"Investors’ sentiment has also turned more wary as depicted by the bearish-bias market breadth of 518 decliners against 253 advancers,” he said.

On the scoreboard, the FBM Emas Index fell 19.17 points to 11,797.5, FBMT100 Index lost 16.69 points to 11,509.06 and the FBM Emas Shariah Index was 13.19 points lower at 12,430.56.

The FBM 70 shed 55.33 points to 13,575.21 and the FBM Ace erased 16.53 points to 5,417.9.

Sector-wise, the Finance Index dipped 36.88 points to 14,460.71, Industrial Index eased 1.79 points to 3,143.7 and the Plantation Index was down 5.32 points to 7,840.76.

Of the heavyweights, TNB lost eight sen to RM14.74, Maybank slipped one sen to RM7.99, Public Bank shed four sen to RM19.76 and IHH eased six sen to RM6.62. Petronas Chemicals added two sen to RM6.68.

Among actives, AirAsia X lost 4.5 sen to 41.5 sen, M3 Technologies inched down 1.5 sen to eight sen, Vivocom slipped one sen to 28.5 sen and AirAsia fell 18 sen to RM3.04. Xidelang was flat at 3.5 sen.Main Market turnover rose to 1.20 billion shares worth RM1.65 billion from

Tuesday’s 1.11 billion shares worth RM1.61 billion.

The ACE Market volume increased to 292.89 million shares valued at RM57.62 million from yesterday’s 269.74 million shares valued at RM51.74 million.

Warrants declined to 433.47 million units worth RM64.37 million from 448.64 million shares worth RM65.20 million previously.

Consumer products accounted for 132.14 million shares traded on the Main Market, industrial products (162.44 million), construction (54.01 million), trade and services (650.93 million), technology (66.2 million), infrastructure (6.2 million), SPAC (3.02 million), finance (44.34 million), hotels (200,800), properties (51.33 million), plantations (25.39 million), mining (33,000), REITs (10.94 million) and closed/fund (28,000). — Bernama