KUALA LUMPUR, Sept 18 — Shares on Bursa Malaysia traded lower today on profit-taking after yesterday’s increase, dealers said.
At 9.05am, the FTSE Bursa Malaysia KLCI (FBM KLCI) stood 1.69 points lower at 1,773.25 after opening at 1,773.25 points.
HwangDBS Vickers Research said after hitting a high of 1,781.47 before settling at 1,774.94 yesterday, the key FBM KLCI could range-bound within a narrow range today.
“On the chart, the immediate support and resistance levels for the benchmark index are currently seen at 1,750 and 1,785, respectively,” it said.
The research house said investors may want to wait for the US Federal Open Market Committee meeting outcome to be known later tonight as the policymakers could announce the beginning of an unwinding of its monetary stimulus programme.
“The consensus is anticipating an initial reduction of about US$10 billion in monthly bonds purchase from an existing amount of US$85 billion,” it said.
On the scoreboard, the Finance Index rose 13.74 points to 16,621.47, the Industrial Index gained 1.8 points to 3,010.02 and the Plantation Index added 4.44 points to 8,346.62.
The FBM Emas Index lost 8.62 points to 12,299.05, the FBM100 Index was 9.561 points lower at 12,050.55 and the FBM 70 fell 3.19 points to 13,957.04 while the FBM Ace advanced 17.99 points to 5,170.76.
Gainers led losers 97 to 42, with 107 counters unchanged, 1,342 untraded and 21 others were suspended.
Volume stood at 47.88 million shares worth RM22.18 million.
Among actives, Dataprep earned one sen to 30 sen, Focal Aims jumped 37 sen to RM1.61, Emico and CSL earned half-a-sen each to 21 sen and 20.5 sen, respectively, while Winsun was unchanged at eight sen.
Heavyweights, Maybank added two sen to RM10.20, while Axiata, CIMB and Sime Darby was unchanged at RM6.88, RM7.58 and RM9.50, respectively, while Petronas Chemicals lost two sen to RM6.74. — Bernama
