KUALA LUMPUR, June 2 — Shares on Bursa Malaysia extended earlier losses to close lower today, dampened by selling in index-linked counters and blue chips.
The benchmark FTSE Bursa Malaysia KLCI (FBM KLCI) finished at 1,864.25, down 9.13 points after fluctuating between 1,861.48 and 1,876.17 throughout the day.
Public Bank and Petronas Gas dragged down the key index by a total of 5.28 points, with their shares declining 46 sen and 68 sen to RM21.14 and RM23.82 respectively.
Inter-Pacific Research Sdn Bhd head of research Pong Teng Siew said the new adjustment activity to meet the Securities Commission’s Shariah-compliant status coupled with the window dressing for the end of May led to the selling on Bursa today.
“Finance stocks were on a last-minute surge last Friday to ensure their end-month reports close with good performance figures.
“Despite the overnight uptrend on Wall Street and regional bourses, our market locked in some profits,” he told Bernama, adding the key index should recover quite quickly with room for more upside.
On the scoreboard, the Plantation Index rose 9.53 points to 9,083.88, but the Finance Index gave up 114.54 points to 17,238.07 and the Industrial Index fell 33.07 points to 3,157.15.
The FBM Emas Index was 47.56 points lower at 12,898.19, the FBMT100 Index erased 49.18 points to 12,546.09, the FBM 70 eased 7.02 points to 14,038.21 and the Ace Index declined 17.32 points to 6,564.01.
Losers thumped gainers 515 to 297, with 299 counters unchanged, 494 untraded and 15 others suspended.
Volume decreased to 1.33 billion shares worth RM1.95 billion, from 1.91 billion shares worth RM6.01 billion transacted on Friday. — Bernama
