KUALA LUMPUR, Nov 1 — Foreign selling in blue-chip stocks coupled with negative sentiment among investors, especially after Ekovest Bhd and Iskandar Waterfront City Bhd called off their merger plan dragged Bursa Malaysia to finish lower today.

At 5pm, the benchmark FTSE Bursa Malaysia KLCI (FBM KLCI) fell 3.99 to close at 1,743.93 compared with Tuesday’s close of 1,747.92 after opening 0.13 of-a-point lower at 1,747.79 this morning.

On the broader market, the tone was negative with losers led gainers 504 to 368, 417 counters unchanged, 521 untraded and 18 others suspended.

Volume shrank to 3.07 billion shares worth RM2.3 billion from 3.15 billion shares worth RM2.78 billion on Tuesday.

Inter-Pacific Securities Head of Research Pong Teng Siew said Ekovest shares that fell more than 20 sen today influenced investors’ mood, thus resulted in a lacklustre performance of retail oriented stocks.

The volume of Ekovest shares traded stood at 366.5 million units.

"We can also see foreign investors withdrawing from the market through the selling of bluechip stocks, including BAT, Nestle, TM and GTronic,” he told Bernama.

At close, BAT declined 96 sen to RM38.24, Nestle reduced 50 sen to RM88 and Gtronic erased 19 sen to RM6.40.

Of the heavyweights, Maybank dipped five sen to RM9.2, Tenaga and PBBank were two sen lower at RM14.98 and RM20.44, respectively, Sime declined 11 sen to RM9.09, while PCHEM and CIMB were both flat at RM7.37 and RM6.14, respectively.

Among active counters, Hibiscus gained 3.5 sen to 74.5 sen, PUC added half-a-sen to 18.5 sen, UMWOG improved 1.5 sen to 33.5 sen, HuaAn erased 2.5 sen to 28.5 sen and Hubline reduced half-a-sen to 17.5 sen.

The FBM Emas Index shed 6.85 points to 12,590.42, the FBMT100 Index was 8.27 points weaker at 12,224.85, the FBM Emas Shariah Index declined 5.93 points to 13,076.79, the FBM Ace dipped 58.78 points to 6,881.39, while the FBM 70 jumped 62.49 points to 15,536.59.

Sector-wise, the Plantation Index was 4.07 points higher at 8,003.09, the Industrial Index slipped 7.10 points to 3,189.67 and the Finance Index was 28.47 points weaker at 16,240.0.

The Main Market volume shrank to 2.01 billion shares worth RM2.16 billion from 2.27 billion shares worth RM2.62 billion on Tuesday.

Volume on the ACE Market improved 673.4 million units worth RM110.73 million from to 646.09 million units worth RM132.82 million yesterday.

Warrants volume climbed to 361.90 million shares worth RM26.8 million from 223.51 million shares worth RM22.35 million previously.

Consumer products accounted for 122.19 million shares traded on the Main Market, industrial products (401.93 million), construction (479.42 million), trade and services (605.10 million), technology (213.78 million), infrastructure (6.95 million), SPAC (799,800), finance (29.42 million), hotels (1.97 million), properties (120.87 million), plantations (23.31 million), mining (11,900), REITs (9.09 million), and closed/fund (304,300). — Bernama