KUALA LUMPUR, July 27 — Bursa Malaysia closed lower today on continued losses in selected index-linked companies, in line with the weaker regional performances, dealers said.

At 5pm, the FTSE Bursa Malaysia KLCI (FBM KLCI) fell 11 points, or 0.64 per cent, to 1,709.76, after fluctuating between 1,709.76 and 1,718.60 throughout the day.

A dealer said the world's second largest economy, China, saw its shares down by eight per cent amid renewed fears about the country's economic outlook, influenced by the unprecendented government intervention early July.

“The fall in shares sent a negative sentiment on the other Asian bourses.

“Back home, the ringgit dropped to its 17-year low and this also pushed the local stocks into negative territory,” he added.

The local note had touched the 3.81 level against the US dollar today.

Hong Kong's Hang Seng declined 776.55 points, or 3.09 per cent, to 24,351.96, Japan's Nikkei 225 was down 194.43 points (0.95 per cent) to 20,350.10 and Singapore's Straits Times was 38.39 points (1.15 per cent) lower at 3,314.26.

On the scoreboard, the FBM Emas Index declined 64.75 points to 11,827.41, FBMT100 Index fell 62.72 points to 11,496.50 and the FBM Syariah contracted 31.68 points to 12,313.99.

The FBM 70 went down 28.42 points to 12,831.37 and the FBM Ace eased 113.72 points to 6,442.98.

On a sectoral basis, the Finance Index lost 160.50 points to 15,387.86,

Plantation Index went down 45.01 points to 7,379.20 and the Industrial Index eased 5.48 points to 3,177.04.

Losers tumbled losers by 609 to 290, with 265 counters unchanged, 660 untraded and 19 others suspended.

Total volume rose to 2.22 billion units valued at RM1.80 billion from 1.74 billion units valued at RM1.50 billion.

Bursa Malaysia Securities Bhd issued an unusual market activity query to 1 Utopia Bhd today due to the recent rise in price of the company's shares.

Among actives, Ikhmas Jaya, which made its debut on the Main Market of Bursa Malaysia today, rose 25 sen to 82 sen and iDimension Consolidated increased 1.5 sen to 12.5 sen.

The Media Shoppe was flat at six sen. 1Utopia was half-a-sen lower at four sen.

Of the heavyweights, Maybank fell seven sen to RM9.16, Public Bank declined 10 sen to RM18.90 and TNB eased four sen to RM12.24.

Axiata was flat at RM6.36.

Main Market volume rose to 1.35 billion units worth RM1.58 billion from 1.05 billion units worth RM1.33 billion on Friday.

Turnover on the ACE Market expanded to 554.85 million shares valued at RM102.07 million from 449.34 million shares valued at RM92.97 million last week. Warrants advanced to 310.55 million units worth RM101.20 million against 246.06 million units worth RM75.56 million previously.

Consumer products accounted for 196.07 million shares traded on the Main Market, industrial products (302.63 million), construction (225.08 million), trade and services (399.98 million), technology (49.77 million), infrastructure (8.83 million), SPAC (16.79 million), finance (32.18 million), hotels (7.7 million), properties (89.38 million), plantations (6.92 million), mining (9,000), REITs (12.58 million), and closed/fund (120,200). – Bernama