KUALA LUMPUR, Nov 27 — The benchmark FTSE Bursa Malaysia KLCI (FBM KLCI) ended broadly in the red today, but heavy buying in plantation shares helped limit losses to a negligible level of 0.03 per cent.

At 5pm, the index stood at 1,682.59, down 0.5 point, after moving between 1,674.83 and 1,684.63 through the day. The plantation index jumped 85.86 points to settle at 7,599.69.

Among heavyweights, TNB and Public Bank were flat at RM13.60 and RM18.26 respectively, IHH Healthcare shed 14 sen to RM6.42, Petronas Chemicals declined 12 sen to RM6.72 and Maybank fell 4 sen to RM8.44.

Of the actives, China Stationery gained 1.5 sen to 15.5 sen, Instacom improved 1 sen to 32 sen, XOX dipped 14.5 sen to 33.5 sen, Wintoni weakened 3.5 sen to 8.5 sen and Ingenuity edged downward 0.5 sen to 6.5 sen.

Market breadth was negative in line with the weaker trend on regional markets. Decliners thumped gainers 635 to 291 while 303 counters were unchanged, 616 untraded and 85 others suspended.

Volume increased to 2.40 billion shares worth RM2.06 billion compared with 2.33 billion shares worth RM1.97 billion yesterday.

Regionally, Japan’s Nikkei 225 eased 0.3 per cent to 19,883.94 and Singapore’s Straits Times fell 0.77 per cent to 2,862.35.

Hong Kong’s Hang Seng fell 1.87 per cent to 22,068.32 and China’s Shanghai Stock Exchange Composite Index slumped 5.48 per cent to 3,436.30.

On the scoreboard, the FBM Emas Index declined 12.14 points to 11,681.18, the FBMT100 Index fell 8.24 points to 11,366.22 and the FBM Emas Shariah Index shed 36.22 points to 12,596.29. The FBM Ace slid 63.08 points to 6,676.32 and the FBM 70 was 27.25 points lower at 12,878.23.

Sector-wise, the Industrial Index eased 3.98 points to 3,296.65 and the Finance Index inched down 3.40 points to 14,134.62.

Main Market volume declined to 1.33 billion units worth RM1.80 billion from yesterday’s 1.52 billion units worth RM1.77 billion.

Turnover on the ACE Market rose to 862.95 million shares valued at RM227.87 million against 635.6 million shares valued at RM170.35 million.

Warrants fell to 210.54 million units worth RM30.80 million from 171.79 million units worth RM22.63 million.

Consumer products accounted for 243.06 million shares traded on the Main Market, industrial products (317.42 million), construction (50.61 million), trade and services (442.56 million), technology (34.70 million), infrastructure (8.65 million), SPAC (6.88 million), finance (50.19 million), hotels (1.96 million), properties (145.94 million), plantations (25.40 million), mining (9,000), REITs (6.98 million) and closed/fund (3,900). — Bernama