KUALA LUMPUR, April 4 — Bursa Malaysia retreated from yesterday’s gains to end marginally lower today dragged by profit-taking, particularly in large-cap stocks, a dealer said.

At 5pm, the FTSE Bursa Malaysia KLCI (FBM KLCI) declined 3.78 points to 1,429.61 from yesterday’s closing of 1,433.39.

The barometer index opened 1.15 points lower at 1,432.24 and moved between 1,426.63 and 1,432.83 throughout the day.

Market breadth was negative as decliners beat gainers 439 to 417, while 402 counters were unchanged, 967 untraded and 30 others suspended.

Turnover fell to 2.62 billion units worth RM1.73 billion from 3.38 billion units worth RM1.63 billion on Monday.

Rakuten Trade Sdn Bhd equity research vice-president Thong Pak Leng said profit-taking emerged following strong gains on Monday and this was viewed as positive as it allows the market to digest the recent uptrend.

"We reckon the FBM KLCI to trend higher within the range of 1,425-1,440 for the remainder of the week,” he told Bernama.

Thong also noted that the key regional indices were mostly higher today while investors were closely monitoring the rising crude oil prices which may cause inflation to escalate.

Among the heavyweights, Maybank fell one sen to RM8.66, Public Bank was unchanged at RM4, Petronas Chemicals and TNB each rose one sen to RM7.22 and RM9.25, respectively, and CIMB gained three sen to RM5.33.

As for the actives, Fitters and Vinvest were unchanged at eight sen and 20.5 sen, respectively, Reach Energy fell two sen to 5.5 sen, Pesona Metro trimmed 1.5 sen to 23 sen, and Computer Forms shed half-a-sen to 22.5 sen.

On the index board, the FBM Emas Index dropped 8.82 points to 10,492.64, the FBMT 100 Index slipped 13.25 points to 10,176.0 and the FBM Emas Shariah Index slid 17.06 points to 10,794.61.

The FBM 70 Index went up 38.72 points to 13,644.88 and the FBM ACE Index was 17.81 points higher at 5,329.93.

Sector-wise, the Financial Services Index gave up 20.59 points to 15,779.50, the Industrial Products and Services Index inched up 0.10 of-a-point to 173.16, the Plantation Index shaved off 71.66 points to 6,707.58, and the Energy Index advanced 9.94 points to 875.70.

The Main Market volume decreased to 1.87 billion units worth RM1.49 billion against 2.33 billion shares worth RM1.38 billion yesterday.

Warrants turnover improved to 245.32 million units worth RM46.46 million versus 239.97 million units worth RM40 million previously.

The ACE Market volume dwindled to 507.12 million shares worth RM194.12 million from 806.14 million shares worth RM212.17 million yesterday.

Consumer products and services counters accounted for 268.28 million shares traded on the Main Market, industrial products and services (533.19 million); construction (133.04 million); technology (19.84 million); SPAC (nil), financial services (54.53 million); property (183.11 million); plantation (25.48 million); REITs (7.5 million), closed/fund (nil); energy (294.03 million); healthcare (102.17 million); telecommunications and media (42.48 million); transportation and logistics (20.41 million); and utilities (38.83 million). — Bernama