KUALA LUMPUR, Dec 11 ― Shares on Bursa Malaysia closed lower in cautious trading today, dragged down by heavyweight stocks and in tandem with regional peers.

At 5pm, the benchmark FTSE Bursa Malaysia KLCI (FBM KLCI) closed at an intra-day low of 1,640.14, down 8.51 points after hovering between 1,650.14 and 1,640.14 throughout the day.

Dealers said excluding Japan, Asian stock markets traded lower amid low oil prices and investor concerns about a likely increase in US interest rates next week.

“The KLCI component stocks also stayed weak, with the ringgit dragged down by a strong US dollar and low crude oil prices,” said a dealer.

Regionally, Japan's Nikkei 225 Index gained 183.93 points or 0.97 per cent to 19,230.48, Hong Kong's Hang Seng slipped 240.56 points to 21,464.05, China's Shanghai Composite Index dipped 20.91 points to 3,434.58 and Singapore's Straits Times Index trimmed 13.51 points to 2,834.95.

Of the heavyweights, Maybank and Tenaga shed eight sen each to RM8.33 and RM13.14 respectively, Axiata added two sen to RM6.08, while Public Bank and Petronas Chemicals were both flat at RM18.24 and RM6.68 respectively.

Among actives, Red Sena warrants gained two sen to 10 sen, Red Sena added 2.5 sen to 40 sen, SapuraKencana shed two sen to RM1.94, while XOX and Instacom were flat at 19.5 sen and 28 sen respectively.

Market breadth was negative as decliners outpaced advancers 477 to 306, while 355 counters were unchanged, 634 untraded and 29 others suspended.

Total volume declined to 1.61 billion shares worth RM1.88 billion from yesterday's 2.06 billion shares worth RM1.94 billion.

The FBM Emas Index fell 71.82 points to 11,439.70, the FBMT100 Index dropped 71.91 points to 11,115.51 and the FBM Emas Shariah Index slid 93.50 points to 12,306.41.

The FBM 70 tumbled 134.43 points to 12,726.94, but the FBM Ace added 6.77 points to 6,427.54.

Sector-wise, the Industrial Index was 14.29 points lower at 3,182.45, the Plantation Index shed 6.04 points to 7,352.65, while the Finance Index reduced 90.96 points to 14,016.79.

Main Market volume fell to 1.17 billion units worth RM1.78 billion from 1.42 billion units worth RM1.80 billion yesterday.  

Turnover on the ACE Market declined to 299.58 million shares valued at RM74.76 million from yesterday's 460.70 million shares valued at RM105.62 million.

Warrants fell to 136.37 million units worth RM19.35 million from 178.38 million units worth RM33.60 million yesterday.  

Consumer products accounted for 76.71 million shares traded on the Main Market, industrial products (195.87 million), construction (43.54 million), trade and services (358.73 million), technology (37.39 million), infrastructure (12.44 million), SPAC (345.40 million), finance (30.49 million), hotels (627,900), properties (48.84 million), plantations (14.87 million), mining (9,000), REITs (5.03 million) and closed/fund (nil). ― Bernama