KUALA LUMPUR, Feb 25 — Bursa Malaysia closed mixed today with the gains in small-capitalised and selected plantation stocks helping the FTSE Bursa Malaysia KLCI (FBM KLCI) stay in positive territory, dealers said.

At 5pm, the benchmark FBM KLCI stood at 1,833.75, up 5.07 points, after moving between 1,827.26 and 1,833.79 throughout the day.  

Losers led gainers by 547 to 293, with 307 counters unchanged, 486 untraded and 17 others suspended.

Volume fell to 286.35 billion shares worth RM2.06 billion from 3.06 billion shares worth RM2.08 billion on Monday.

Mercury Securities head of research, Edmund Tham, said in the absence of positive market leads, the weak sentiment has led investors to shift their interests from blue-chips to lower-liners.

“Foreign buying activities were also minimal and today’s market is mostly supported by active retail investors.

“We expect this week’s market to be range-bound,” he told Bernama.

The Finance Index fell 7.16 points to 16,556.

The Industrial Index increased 17.25 points to 3,135.38 and the Plantation Index rose 22.96 points to 8,822.92.

The FBM Emas Index added 23.55 points for 12,674.92, FBMT100 Index gained 30.05 points to 12,342.79 and the FBM 70 earned 17.56 points to 13,818.57.

The FBM Ace fell 152.19 points to 6,653.30.

Among actives, Iris Corp slipped 4.5 sen to 57 sen, Luster Industries fell one sen to 12.5 sen and KNM-WA lost half-a-sen to 18 sen. Of the heavyweights, Maybank and Tenaga Nasional gave up two sen each to RM9.73 and RM12.02 respectively, while CIMB added one sen to RM7.10. Main Market volume fell to 2.03 billion units worth RM1.84 billion from 2.20 billion units worth RM1.88 billion yesterday.

Turnover on the ACE market declined to 800.59 million shares valued at RM201.83 million from 821.66 million shares valued at RM188.18 million yesterday.

Warrants eased to 28.52 million units worth RM3.16 million from 30.78 million units worth RM3.03 million previously.

Consumer products accounted for 107.43 million shares traded on the Main Market, industrial products 578.7 million, construction 52.61 million, trade and services 801.53 million, technology 40.19 million, infrastructure 23.02 million, SPAC 111.55 million, finance 45.04 million, hotels 823,900, properties 223.1 million, plantations 24.99 million, mining 27,000, REITs 18.03 million and closed/fund 16,800. — Bernama