KUALA LUMPUR, Jan 15 — Shares prices on Bursa Malaysia ended easier today, bogged down by finance and index-linked counters following profit taking, dealers said.
The FTSE Bursa Malaysia KLCI (FBM KLCI) finished 10.94 points lower at 1,824.03 after opening at 1,834.74.
The benchmark index hovered between 1,818.99 and 1,836.47 throughout the day.
Regionally, Japan's Nikkei 225 rose to 15,808.73, Hong Kong's Hang Seng increased to 22,902.00 and Singapore's Straits Times Index was up 3,143.25.
Main market debutant IOI Properties is among the biggest gainers after its shares gained 64 sen to RM3.15.
It opened at RM3.21 a share, a 70 sen premium from its reference price of RM2.51.
Overall, losers outnumbered gainers by 556 to 284, while 301 were unchanged, 411 untraded and 24 others were suspended.
Volume rose to 2.36 billion shares valued at RM2.703 billion from 2.067 billion shares worth RM 1.738 billion on Monday.
On the scoreboard, the Finance Index lost 120.06 points to 16,678.029, the Plantation Index slipped 74.96 points to 8,561.14 and the Industrial Index shed 35.36 points to 3,084.12.
The FBM Emas Index erased 78.67 points to 12,627.31, the FBMT100 Index fell 75.98 points to 12,330.24 but the FBM Ace was 13.49 points higher at 6,025.64.
The FBM 70 decreased 94.34 points to 14,011.17.
Among actives, Iris Corporation earned two sen to 44.5 sen while Sumatec Resources Bhd was up half a sen at 31.5 sen and Daya Materials rose 1.5 sen to 42 sen.
As for heavyweights, Maybank lost nine sen to RM9.81, Tenaga declined 14 sen to RM11.56 and Axiata slipped one sen to RM6.73. — Bernama
