KUALA LUMPUR, Aug 17 — Bursa Malaysia closed lower today, with selling mostly in selected heavyweights led by Top Glove and Hartalega, amid mixed regional peers.

At 5pm, the benchmark FTSE Bursa Malaysia KLCI (FBM KLCI) finished 3.85 points lower at 1,560.74 from Friday’s close of 1,564.59.

The key index opened 2.60 points weaker at 1,561.94 and moved between 1,543.04 and 1,567.55 throughout the day.

Top Glove fell RM1.40 to RM22.42 and Hartalega trimmed 46 sen to RM15.56. Losses in both stocks dragged the composite index down by a combine 10.757 points.

A dealer said glove makers were under pressure following speculation of a windfall tax, given their supernormal profits due to the COVID-19 pandemic.

Speaking to Bernama, he said sentiment was also weighed by the Malaysia’s second quarter gross domestic product (GDP) data, as well as the US-China tensions, where phase one of trade deal was delayed to allow more Chinese purchases of US exports.

Volume declined to 8.79 billion shares worth RM4.95 billion from Friday’s 10.46 billion shares worth RM5.15 billion.

Market breadth was negative, with losers thumping gainers 595 to 502, while 391 counters were unchanged, 516 untraded and 22 others suspended.

Of the heavyweights, Maybank added one sen to RM7.81 but Public Bank and Tenaga were flat at RM17.80 and RM11.12, respectively.

Among the most actives, Borneo Oil was flat at seven sen, XOX eased four sen to 20 sen, Iris rose 6.5 sen to 39.5 sen, and Lambo shed half-a-sen to five sen.

On the index board, the FBM Emas Index decreased 36.78 points to 11,107.75, the FBM Emas Shariah Index was 73.6 points lower at 12,841.58, the FBMT 100 Index erased 39.24 points to 10,937.02, and the FBM 70 gave up 98.84 points to 14,027.01.

However, the FBM ACE rose 250.76 points to 9,860.35.

Sector-wise, the Financial Services Index increased 31.67 points to 13,336.72, the Plantation Index improved 45.29 points to 7,046.07, while the Industrial Products and Services Index added 1.97 points to 141.11.

Main Market volume fell to 4.75 billion shares valued at RM3.71 billion compared with 5.76 billion shares worth RM3.89 billion on Friday.

Warrants turnover narrowed to from 510.44 million units valued at RM184.18 million from 524.13 million units worth RM180.43 million.

Volume on the ACE Market decreased to 3.53 billion shares valued at RM1.06 billion from Friday’s 4.17 billion shares worth RM1.07 billion.

Consumer products and services accounted for 750.23 million shares traded on the Main Market, industrial products and services (1.47 billion), construction (116.81 million), technology (532.10 million), SPAC (nil), financial services (32.19 million), property (532.69 million), plantations (32.7 million), REITs (11.04 million), closed/fund (6,000), energy (8.45 billion), healthcare (119.63 million), telecommunications and media (202.39 million), transportation and logistics (86.59 million), and utilities (22.16 million). — Bernama