KUALA LUMPUR, April 10 — The benchmark FTSE Bursa Malaysia KLCI (FBM KLCI) ended the week easier today, dragged down by selling in finance and banking stocks led by Maybank.

The barometer index finished 5.08 points lower at 1,844.31 points, after fluctuating between 1,840.77 points and 1,849.78 points throughout the day.

Maybank, which pulled down the composite index by 1.95 points, fell 12 sen to RM9.37 with 10.96 million shares transacted.

A dealer said the local market closed lower for two straight days on continued profit-taking ahead of the weekend, and this curbed interest despite the positive performance in the US and regional markets.

On the scoreboard, the FBM Emas Index contracted 24.79 points to 12,662.46, FBMT100 Index trimmed 25.18 points to 12,348.75, FBM Ace declined 17.17 points to 7,124.3 and the FBM Emas Syariah Index shed 2.56 points to 13,215.61.

The FBM 70, however, gained 6.42 points to 13,579.17.

On a sectoral basis, the Finance Index dropped 94.58 points to 16,325.86 and Plantation Index decreased 23.11 points to 7,794.55. The Industrial Index rose 12.25 points to 3,401.12.

Gainers led losers by 422 to 403, while 330 counters were unchanged, 647 untraded and 12 others suspended.

Total volume improved to 1.85 billion units worth RM1.8 billion from Thursday’s 1.8 billion units worth RM1.79 billion.

Of the heavyweights, TNB, Public Bank and Axiata lost six sen each to RM14.50, RM19.06 and RM7.00 respectively. Sime Darby eased three sen to RM9.27.

Among actives, Frontken shed 2.5 sen to 21.5 sen, Kanger gained 3.5 sen to 33.5 sen, while Netx was flat at eight sen.

Integrax, which will be suspended on April 21, slipped one sen to RM3.18.

Main Market volume rose to 1.18 billion shares worth RM1.64 billion against 1.10 billion shares worth RM1.65 billion on Thursday.

Turnover on the ACE Market decreased to 579.53 million units valued at RM140.76 million from 610.70 million units valued at RM126 million yesterday.

Warrants rose to 92.46 million shares worth RM19.67 million from 83.68 million shares worth RM13.55 million previously.

Consumer products accounted for 168.33 million shares traded on the Main Market, industrial products (163.95 million), construction (70.93 million), trade and services (549.84 million), technology (34.08 million), infrastructure (10.78 million), SPAC (23.73 million), finance (56.13 million), hotels (5.16 million), properties (84.52 million), plantations (8.02 million), mining (25,000), REITs (4.92 million), and closed/fund (33,000). — Bernama