KUALA LUMPUR, June 23 — Bursa Malaysia closed lower today after yesterday's strong rebound on profit-taking, despite the bullish performance in most Asian markets, dealers said.

At 5pm today, the benchmark FTSE Bursa Malaysia KLCI (FBM KLCI) was 5.90 points lower at 1,726.86, after moving between 1,726.86 and 1,734.97 throughout the day.

Losers led gainers 407 to 395, with 327 counters unchanged, 699 counters untraded and 13 others suspended.

Total volume increased to 1.73 billion units worth RM1.68 billion, from yesterday's 1.54 billion units worth RM1.82 billion.

A dealer said trading on the local bourse was choppy and within a tight range, in line with most Southeast Asian stock markets, which were also rangebound today as investors were cautious on developments in Greece's debt talks.

HLIB Research said the local sentiment remained wary over issues relating to 1Malaysia Development Bhd and the potential Fitch Ratings downgrade by end-June.

The first-half year window dressing would be the only potential domestic catalyst visible to move the benchmark index higher from a grossly oversold market, it said.

"A swift recapture of the 1,738 level is vital for the local bourse to break its downtrend trajectory with a higher upside target at 1,746. Key supports are the 1,718 and 1,700 levels," the research house added.

Of the heavyweights, Maybank fell six sen to RM9.28, Tenaga shed four sen to RM13.06, Public Bank eased two sen to RM18.92, Sime Darby added one sen to RM8.52 while Axiata was flat at RM6.49.

Among actives, KNM improved 5.5 sen to 59.5 sen, PUC Founder and Xinghe Warrant (A) added half-a-sen each to 13.5 sen and 2.5 sen respectively, Perisai Petroleum increased 2.5 sen to 48 sen while Frontken shed half-a-sen to 27.5 sen.

On the scoreboard, the FBM Emas Index was 33.52 points lower at 11,945.53, FBMT100 Index fell 39.21 points to 11,628.41, FBM Emas Syariah fell 24.03 points to 12,434.23, FBM Ace dropped 33.06 points to 6,555.10 and the FBM 70 slipped 42.09 points to 13,041.09.

On a sectoral basis, the Finance Index slid 55.11 points to 15,602.87, Plantation Index decreased 46.23 points to 7,261.52 and the Industrial Index slipped 3.16 points for 3,166.12

Main Market volume rose to 1.07 billion shares worth RM1.48 billion, from 855 million shares worth RM1.62 billion, recorded on Monday.

Turnover on the ACE Market decreased to 508.80 million units valued at RM151.57 million, from 557.89 million units valued at RM181.43 million.

Warrants appreciated to 152.71 million shares worth RM47.95 million, from 124.34 million shares worth RM21.44 million.

Consumer products accounted for 79.49 million shares traded on the main market, industrial products (301.61 million), construction (34.31 million), trade and services (499.38 million), technology (41.68 million), infrastructure (9.65 million), SPAC (2.77 million), finance (32.80 million), hotels (1.14 million), properties (45.22 million), plantations (13.98 million), mining (10,000), REITS (6.61 million) and closed/fund (16,600). — Bernama