KUALA LUMPUR, Aug 24 — Heavy selling across the board particularly in heavyweight counters dragged Bursa Malaysia to close sharply lower today, dealers said.

At 5pm, the FTSE Bursa Malaysia KLCI (FBM KLCI) fell 42.53 points or 2.70 per cent to close at the day’s low of 1,532.14, after fluctuating between 1,532.14 and 1,554.08 throughout the day.

Hong Leong Investment Bank said the key index faced further selldown, triggered by the steep fall in the Dow Jones, which fell 3.1 per cent last Friday, and exacerbated by lingering domestic concerns.

The local bourse was also traded lower for the whole trading session, and also tracked the sharp fall in regional peers on the back of battered sentiment in Chinese shares, coupled with the weaker ringgit, said a dealer.

The ringgit breached the 4.25 level against the dollar today for the first time since the Asian financial crisis 17 years ago.

Among regional peers, Japan’s Nikkei 225 slid 4.61 per cent to 18,540.68, Hang Seng slipped 5.17 per cent to 21,251.57, Kospi Index was down 2.47 per cent to 1,829.81, the Straits Times Index lost 3.94 per cent to 2,854.06 and the Shanghai Composite dropped 7.42 per cent to 3,247.44.

Market breadth was negative with losers overwhelming gainers by 941 to 100, while 155 counters remained unchanged, 605 untraded and 10 others suspended.

Total volume rose to 2.58 billion units valued at RM2.50 billion from 1.79 billion units at RM2.13 billion last Friday.

On the scoreboard, the FBM Emas Index fell 309.83 points to 10,485.14, FBMT100 Index slipped 287.97 points to 10,241.80 and the FBM Emas Syariah Index declined 287.98 points to 10,901.91.

The FBM Ace decreased 324.82 points to 4,885.91 and the FBM 70 dropped 328.76 points to 11,207.43.

Sector-wise, the Finance Index tumbled 456.71 points to 13,675.61, Plantation Index fell 153.51 points to 6,715.88 and the Industrial Index slid 87.51 points to 2,938.98.

Among the leading movers in the composite index’s component stocks were Sime Darby which fell 59 sen to RM7.02, Maybank slipped 27 sen to RM8.32, CIMB Group declined 33 sen to RM4.62, Public Bank shed 42 sen to RM17.28 and Petronas Chemicals eased 20 sen to RM5.38.

Of the actives, Frontken slid two sen to 17 sen, AirAsia fell five sen to 92 sen, IFCA MSC declined 11.5 sen to 50.5 sen and Sumatec lost one sen to 10.5 sen.

APFT added half-a-sen to 23.5 sen.

Main Market volume rose to 1.34 billion units worth RM2.18 billion from 934.92 million units worth RM1.92 billion on last Friday.

Turnover on the ACE Market increased to 343.67 million shares valued at RM58.57 million from 173.70 million shares valued at RM39.47 million previously.

Warrants improved to 897.83 million units worth RM260.46 million from 677.80 million units worth RM167.60 million previously.

Consumer products accounted for 124.52 million shares traded on the Main Market, industrial products (211.52 million), construction (53.32 million), trade and services (573.97 million), technology (59.64 million), infrastructure (25.68 million), SPAC (36.61 million), finance (84.49 million), hotels (2.66 million), properties (122.64 million), plantations (23.29 million), mining (22,900), REITs (17.64 million), and closed/fund (73,500). — Bernama