KUALA LUMPUR, April 28 — Share prices on Bursa Malaysia ended the day lower on weaker buying support due to ongoing geopolitical risk in Ukraine, with the FTSE Bursa Malaysia KLCI (FBM KLCI) 5.24 points easier at 1,855.74 points.

The benchmark index hovered between 1,855.74 points and 1,862.97 points throughout today’s trading.

Kenanga Research said the FBM KLCI was expected to continue to be trapped in the sideway consolidation mode, at between the 1,840 and 1,869-point range, before the conclusion of the US Federal Open Market Committee meeting, scheduled on April 29-30.

“The local market experienced another tight range trading as the broader market continued to favour rotational plays on the small-cap and penny stocks rather than the big-cap counters,” it said in a research note.

However, Alliance Research said the analysis of overall market action last week revealed that buying power was stronger than selling pressure.

“As such, the weekly FBM KLCI Index would likely trade above the 1,870.89 level in the week ending May 2, 2014,” the research house said in a separate note.

On heavyweights, Maybank was flat at RM9.95, Axiata added 2.0 sen to RM6.67, Public Bank and TNB shed 10 sen each to RM20.16 and RM11.84, respectively, and CIMB lost 2.0 sen to RM7.49.

Among actives, PDZ remained unchanged at 15.5 sen while 1 Utopia and Karambunai Corp eased half-a-sen each to 7.0 sen and 9.5 sen, respectively.

Market breadth was negative as losers led gainers 647 to 235 while 259 counters were unchanged, 488 untraded and 30 others suspended.                   

Turnover was higher at 2.16 billion shares worth RM1.74 billion from 1.93 billion shares worth RM1.89 billion, recorded on Friday.

On the scoreboard, the Industrial Index lost 5.27 points to 3,141.71 points, the Finance Index slipped 55.54 points to 17,018.04 points and the Plantation Index fell 31.08 points to 8,964.65 points.         

The FBM Emas Index shed 38.52 points to 12,879.82 points, the FBMT100 Index was 32.86 points lower at 12,517.12 points, the FBM 70 fell 27.3 points to 14,116.41 points and the Ace Index lost 156.01 points at 6,754.15 points.

Main Market volume was higher at 1.53 billion units worth RM1.63 billion from last week’s 1.44 billion units worth RM1.75 billion.

Turnover on the ACE market rose to 565.57 million shares valued at RM94.35 million from 443.37 million shares valued at RM122.55 million, recorded on Friday.

Warrants narrowed to 33.51 million units worth RM4.72 million from 40.04 million units worth RM5.45 million yesterday.

Consumer products accounted for 176.19 million shares traded on the Main Market, industrial products 248.12 million, construction 94.89 million, trade and services 485.51 million, technology 55.86 million, infrastructure 15.22 million, SPAC 28.81 million, finance 47.65 million, hotels 5.26 million, properties 348.8 million, plantations 23.65 million, mining 792,900, REITs 2.88 million and closed/fund 70,400. — Bernama