KUALA LUMPUR, Nov 13 — Shares on Bursa Malaysia ended lower today with losses seen in selected heavyweights and blue chips, in line with regional equities after Wall Street ended in the red last night, dealers said.

At 5pm, the FTSE Bursa Malaysia KLCI (FBM KLCI) ended 12.31 points lower at 1,782.49, after hovering between 1,781.66 and 1,796.19 throughout the day.

They said there were renewed concerns that the US Federal Reserve might taper its monetary stimulus programme sooner than expected.

However, overall market volume remained buoyant due to persistent buying interest in lower liners, ACE and penny stocks whilst the mid and big caps continued to consolidate, they added.

Regionally, Japan’s Nikkei 225 dropped to 14,567.16, Hong Kong’s Hang Seng declined to 22,463.83 and Singapore’s Straits Times Index eased to 3,166.74.

On the scoreboard, the Finance Index dipped 153.6 points to 16,509.91, the Plantation Index lost 20.11 points to 8,576.67, and the Industrial Index eased 20.65 points to 3,060.95.

The FBM Emas Index shed 82.05 points to 12,420.58, the FBMT100 Index declined 79.97 points to 12,147.09, the FBM Ace was 120.81 points lower at 5,745.37 and the FBM 70 slipped 77.32 points to 14,207.97.

Decliners overwhelmed advancers 654 to 196 with 270 counters unchanged, 485 untraded and 16 others suspended.

Turnover stood at 2.245 billion shares worth RM2.218 billion.

Among actives, Asia Bioenergy Tech was flat at 12.5 sen, 1 Utopia earned 10 sen to 8.5 sen and Sumatec Resources dropped two sen to 49.5 sen.

Newly listed Caring Pharmacy gained 58 sen to RM1.83.

As for the heavyweights, Maybank lost 12 sen to RM9.73, CIMB declined six sen to RM7.47 and Axiata slipped two sen to RM6.83.

Volume on the Main Market depreciated to 1.58 billion units worth RM2.081 billion, from 1.711 billion units worth RM1.953 billion registered yesterday.

Turnover on the ACE market decreased to 594.023 million shares valued at RM112.662 million, compared with 646.127 million shares worth RM119.173 million recorded yesterday.

Warrants grew to 52.768 million units worth RM7.209 million, from 31.642 million units valued at RM3.427 million registered on Monday.

Consumer products accounted for 211.568 million shares on the Main Market, industrial products 281.6 million, construction 49.245 million, trade and services 606.999 million, technology 80.155 million, infrastructure 36.639 million, SPAC 50.892 million, finance 85.800 million, hotels 5.223 million, properties 147.611 million, plantations 17.479 million, mining 18,500, REITs 8.179 million and closed/fund 71,100. — Bernama