KUALA LUMPUR, Feb 4 — Shares on Bursa Malaysia closed broadly lower today, due to low risk appetite as investors took the cue from the weaker performance in regional and US markets.

The FTSE Bursa Malaysia KLCI (FBM KLCI) finished at 1,778.83, down 25.2 points or 1.4 per cent from from Thursday's close of 1,804.03.

The benchmark index fluctuated between 1,769.8 and 1,795.89 throughout the session, bogged down by index-linked counters.            

Etiqa Insurance & Takaful Bhd Head of Research Chris Eng said the performance of the local market, which retreated from last week's gains, was within expectation following last-minute gains registered on Thursday.

"Last week's sharp rally has led to some profit taking activities today on selected counters like TNB and Genting.

"However, Bursa Malaysia will rebound later in the month driven by reasonable data on the national gross domestic product as well as corporate earnings," he told Bernama.

Bursa Malaysia was closed yesterday as it was a public holiday in lieu of  the Federal Territory Day holiday which fell on Saturday.

On the scoreboard, the Finance Index gave up 120.17 points for 16,288.51, the Plantation Index fell 122.58 points to 8,306.36 and the Industrial Index declined 41.12 points to 3,031.37.

The FBM Emas Index was 164.14 points lower at 12,292.19, the FBMT100 Index lost 167.07 points to 12,008.79, the FBM 70 dropped 177.06 points to 13,583.98 and the FBM Ace decreased 28.98 points to 5,872.35.

Losers outpaced gainers 494 to 214, while 291 counters were unchanged, 593 untraded and 17 others suspended.

Volume amounted to 1.26 billion shares worth RM2.00 billion, as compared to Thursday's half-day trading of 769.16 million shares valued at RM1.3 billion.

Among actives, KNM Group gained 1.5 sen to 63 sen while PDZ Holdings was flat at 12 sen.

For heavyweights, both Maybank and CIMB fell seven sen each to RM9.56 and RM6.85 respectively, TNB gave up 52 sen for RM11.28, Axiata Group shed one sen to RM6.55 and Sime Darby lost 12 sen to RM8.87.

Main Market volume rose to 1.06 billion units worth RM1.95 billion, from 650.43 million units worth RM1.27 billion registered on Thursday.

Turnover on the ACE market expanded to 173.27 million shares worth RM49.34 million, from last week's 94.84 million shares worth RM30.05 million.

 Warrants increased to 26.8 million units worth RM3.05 million, from 21.52 million units worth RM1.86 million previously.

Consumer products accounted for 95.31 million shares traded on the Main Market, industrial products 182.89 million, construction 47.08 million, trade and services 399.52 million, technology 58.99 million, infrastructure 25.48 million, SPAC 38.74 million, finance 50.15 million, hotels 345,100, properties 121.45 million, plantations 30.84 million, mining 15,000, REITs 7.35 million and closed/fund 14,300. — Bernama