KUALA LUMPUR, Jan 30 — Bursa Malaysia closed mixed today following a severe bout of persistent selling pressure in the final hours and cloaked by low market sentiment, dealers said.

At 5pm, the benchmark FTSE Bursa Malaysia KLCI (FBM KLCI) was 0.92 of a point lower at 1,781.26.

The benchmark index, which opened 6.18 points higher at 1,788.36, hovered between 1,781.26 and 1,789.39 throughout the day.

The market gave up early gains on profit-taking seen in the consumer, plantation and properties segment.

“A volatile session saw the dollar push higher and equities trapped in a sideways range, between the 1,780 and 1,800 levels,” Affin Hwang Investment Bank Head of Retail Research Datuk Dr Nazri Khan told Bernama.

He said oil prices also sank to the lowest in nearly six years as market participants digested the Greece election turmoil and scrutinised the US Federal Reserve’s latest policy statement.

In the early session, Bursa Malaysia recorded gains after two-days of consecutive losses, prompted by the overnight gains on Wall Street.

Market breadth was positive with gainers outpacing decliners 440 to 344, while 330 counters were unchanged, 640 untraded and 39 others suspended.

Total turnover increased to 1.91 billion shares valued at RM2.21 billion from 1.89 billion shares worth RM2.23 billion on Thursday.

Among actives, Asia Bioenergy gained 2.5 sen to 24.5 sen, ETI Tech fell half a sen to 6.5 sen and The Media Shoppe was flat at 6.5 sen.

Of the heavyweights, Tenaga Nasional lost six sen to RM14.50, Maybank added six sen to RM8.72 and Public Bank rose six sen to RM18.14.

On the scoreboard, the FBM Emas Index slipped 0.85 of a point to 12,271.94, the FBMT100 Index declined 3.12 points to 11,978.45 and the FBM Emas Syariah Index decreased 0.85 of a point to 12,271.94.

The FBM 70 improved 8.25 points to 13,371.65 and the FBM Ace added 93.89 points to 6,556.9.

On a sectorial basis, the Industrial Index gained 1.93 points to 3,246.62, and the Finance Index advanced 98.42 points to 15,501.87.But the Plantation Index slipped 49.38 points to 7,941.45.

MI AS Main Market volume rose to 1.3 billion units valued at RM2.08 billion from 1.24 billion units worth RM2.08 billion yesterday.

Turnover on the ACE Market increased to 537.02 million shares worth RM103.27 million from 535.54 million shares worth RM110.91 million.

Warrants slid to 73.11 million units worth RM103.27 million from 108.95 million units valued at RM33.18 million previously.

Consumer products accounted for 184.85 million shares traded on the Main Market, industrial products (200.16 million), construction (75.26 million), trade and services (400.77 million), technology (207.45 million), infrastructure (15.25 million), SPAC (15.28 million), finance (80.77 million), hotels (1.26 million), properties (93.83 million), plantations (18.58 million), mining (5,000), REITs (8.35 million) and closed/fund (28,000). — Bernama