KUALA LUMPUR, Nov 4 — Shares on Bursa Malaysia closed lower today in line with regional markets, on profit taking ahead of the public holiday tomorrow and concerns over external economic uncertainties, dealers said.

At 5 pm today, the FTSE Bursa Malaysia KLCI (FBM KLCI) was down 2.94 points to 1,807.47, after moving between 1,806.93 and 1,813.83 throughout the day.

A dealer said on the external front, investors were cautious as the US Federal Reserve may reduce its bond-buying programme earlier than March 2014 as previously anticipated.

The market will be closed for the Awal Muharram public holiday tomorrow.

On the scoreboard, the Finance Index rose 42.73 points to 16,697.26 and the Plantation Index climbed 18.54 points to 8,634.12 while the Industrial Index slipped 12.40 points to 3,124.49.

The FBM Emas Index lost 15.64 points to 12,571.30, the FBMT100 fell 16.09 points to 12,294.81 and the FBM Ace Index chalked up 55.96 points to 5,802.25.

Meanwhile, the FBM70 Index gave up 2.43 points to 14,288.16.

Total volume stood at 1.7 billion shares worth RM1.42 billion.

Gainers edged losers by 408 to 370, with 315 counters unchanged, 495 untraded and 19 others suspended.

Among actives, Insas gained 14 sen to 78.5 sen, Tiger Synergy was up by 1.5 sen to 26.5 sen and Censof rose 3.5 sen to 64 sen while Hubline erased half a sen to 5.5 sen and Xidelang eased four sen to 38 sen.

Of the heavyweights, Petronas Chemicals and Maxis fell four sen each to RM7.08 and RM7.15 respectively while Sime Darby lost one sen to RM9.51.

Tenaga Nasional and Petronas Gas were unchanged at RM9.40 and RM24.30 respectively.

Volume on the Main Market contracted to 1.25 billion units worth RM1.32 billion from 1.31 billion units worth RM1.98 billion on Friday.

Turnover on the ACE market declined to 409.84 million shares worth RM102.87 million from 471.89 million shares worth RM104.98 million last week.

Warrants expanded to 33.92 million units valued at RM2.96 million from 29.53 million units worth RM3.3 million on Friday. 

Consumer products accounted for 133.9 million shares on the Main Market, industrial products 131.87 million, construction 39.22 million, trade and services 462.75 million, technology 158.38 million, infrastructure 15.58 million, SPAC 15.58 million, finance 27.95 million, hotels 2.2 million, properties 133.18 million, plantations 26.46 million, mining 59,200, REITs 2.65 million and closed/fund 15,300. — Bernama