KUALA LUMPUR, July 1 — Stocks on Bursa Malaysia closed broadly easier today dampened by the absence of major funds and fresh leads, dealers said.

At 5pm, the benchmark FTSE Bursa Malaysia KLCI (FBM KLCI) ended 3.59 points or 0.191 per cent lower at 1,879.12, after hovering between 1,876.6 and 1,880.29.

Regionally, Japan’s Nikkei 225 rose to 15,326.20 and Shanghai Composite edged up to 2,050.38 while Singapore’s Straits Times Index eased to 3,242.55.

On the scoreboard, the Plantation Index declined 36.68 points to 9,194.23 and the Industrial Index depreciated 5.27 points to 3,238.58, but the Finance Index firmed 38.78 points to 17,211.131.

The FBM Emas Index slid 20.11 points to 13,029.68, the FBMT100 Index went down 20.48 points to 12,657.84, the FBM 70 was 8.49 points firmer at 14,208.19, and the Ace Index increased 28.31 points to 6,697.1.

Market breadth was slightly negative as decliners outpaced advancers 415 to 369, with 340 counters unchanged, 486 untraded and 17 others suspended.

Total volume declined to 1.712 billion units worth RM1.654 billion from yesterday’s 1.82 billion shares worth RM2.30 billion.

Among top gainers, British American Tobacco added RM1.12 to RM66.66, Public Bank rose 26 sen to RM5.76 and Goh Ban Huat gained 24 sen to RM2.00.

Losers were led by Lysaght Galvanized, which dropped 52 sen to RM5.00. Century Logistic eased 37 sen to RM2.09 and Aeon Credit Service lost 36 sen to RM15.62.

Among active counters, Econpile Holdings gained 6.5 sen to 72.5 sen while Ire-tex Corporation and Minetech were both flat at 14.5 sen and 15.5 sen respectively.

Of the heavyweights, Maybank was flat at RMRM9.83 while TNB and CIMB both climbed two sen each to RM12.20 and RM7.34 respectively.

Main Market volume dropped to 1.325 billion units worth RM1.574 billion from yesterday’s 1.57 billion units worth RM2.24 billion.

Turnover on the ACE market increased to 285.457 million shares valued at RM63.327 million from 205.36 million shares valued at RM48.7 million previously.

Warrants increased to 27.07 million units worth RM3.96 million from 20.54 million units worth RM2.29 million yesterday.

Consumer products accounted for 70.96 million shares traded on the Main Market, industrial products 420.39 million, construction 168.98 million, trade and services 409.14 million, technology 34.825 million, infrastructure 22.87 million, SPAC 23.84 million, finance 48.96 million, hotels 1.03 million, properties 94.59 million, plantations 25.23 million, mining 62,000, REITs 4.84 million and closed/fund 12,700. — Bernama