KUALA LUMPUR, Jan 28 — Share prices on Bursa Malaysia closed lower on profit taking in key heavyweights especially finance as well as oil and gas amid external weakness, dealers said.

At 5pm, the benchmark FTSE Bursa Malaysia KLCI (FBM KLCI) dropped 7.29 points to 1,795.88 after moving between 1,790.02 and 1,800.64.

The KLCI index opened 8.41 points lower at 1,794.76.

An analyst said the market edged lower since early trade amid waning market momentum across the region as external developments affected sentiment.

The sentiment was dampened by the reemergence of a geopolitical risk in Ukraine and uncertainty caused by renegotiations between the new anti-austerity Greek government and international lenders.

"We are taking a more cautious stance as we believe that the key index could consolidate further following its recent uptrend," Kenanga Research said in a note.

The research house expects the FBM KLCI likely to continue trading range bound within 1,770 to 1,810 this week with a downward-bias.

Of the actives, Asia Bioenergy rose one sen to 22 sen, Jobstreet gained 6.5 sen to 46 sen, Dagang Nexchange added half a sen to 33.5 sen and Efficient E-Solutions went up one sen to 35 sen.

Among heavyweights, Tenaga Nasional lost 20 sen to RM14.80, Maybank fell 23 sen to RM8.69, Axiata declined six sen to RM7.14, Maxis fell three sen to RM7.13 and Petronas Gas trimmed 12 sen to RM22.22.

Market breadth was negative with decliners outpacing gainers by 440 to 340, while 339 counters were unchanged, 632 untraded and 47 others suspended.

Total turnover declined to 2.01 billion shares valued at RM2.31 billion from 2.05 billion units valued at RM2.19 billion yesterday.

On the scoreboard, the FBM Emas Index declined 39 points to 12,359.44 and the FBMT100 Index lost 38.77 points to 12,062.25.

The FBM Emas Syariah Index decreased 43.199 points to 12,963.32 and the FBM 70 slipped 3.83 points to 13,409.4.

The FBM Ace rose 39.99 points to 6,460.63.

On a sectoral basis, the Industrial Index increased 0.45 point to 3,276.24 and the Plantation Index rose 55.13 points to 8,050.33.

The Finance Index dipped 125.619 points to 15,514.69.

Main Market volume rose to 1.29 billion units valued at RM2.14 billion from 1.13 billion units worth RM2.0 billion yesterday.

Turnover on the ACE Market decreased to 578.37 million units worth RM137.38 million from 769.63 million units valued at RM142.39 million yesterday.

Warrants went down to 139.02 million units valued at RM35.57 million from 140.51 million units worth RM38.19 million previously.

Consumer products accounted for 106.84 million shares traded on the Main Market, industrial products (186.89 million), construction (81.52 million), trade and services (523.89 million), technology (128.04 million), infrastructure (18.04 million), SPAC (17.62 million), finance (100.75 million), hotels (3.12 million), properties (94.01 million), plantations (23.69 million), mining (43,700), REITs (9.3 million) and closed/fund (40,300). — Bernama