KUALA LUMPUR, Oct 7 — Bursa Malaysia finished lower today as investors turned cautious ahead of the release of US economic data, dealers said.

At 5pm, the FTSE Bursa Malaysia KLCI (FBM KLCI) fell by 1.35 points to 1,665.38 against yesterday's close of 1,666.73.

The index opened 2.21 points higher at 1,668.94 in the morning and moved between 1,661.59 and 1,670.30 throughout the day.

Losers hammered gainers by 405 to 324 while 424 counters were unchanged, 506 untraded and 33 others suspended.

Volume fell to 1.35 billion units worth RM1.56 billion from 1.79 billion units worth RM1.73 billion yesterday.

A dealer said most Asian equity markets were lower as investors stayed on the sidelines ahead of the release of the US September jobs data later in the day.

The dealer also said talks of the UK’s move to have a ‘hard’ exit from the European Union also weighed on the market.

Among heavyweights, Public Bank eased eight sen to RM19.88, Maybank fell seven sen to RM7.63 and IHH Healthcare dipped four sen to RM6.51. Tenaga was flat at RM14.36.

Of the actives, Perak Transit fell 1.5 sen to 19.5 sen, Perisai Petroleum Teknologi added half-a-sen to eight sen and Lion Corp was flat at half-a-sen.

The FBM Emas Index lost 10.84 points to 11,762.15 and the FBMT100 Index fell 11.87 points to 11,465.59.

The FBM Emas Shariah Index perked 6.97 points to 12,419.73.

The FBM 70 was down 23.51 points to 13,781.04 and the FBM Ace was 27.59 points lower at 5,134.54.

On a sectoral basis, the Industrial Index rose 10.63 points to 3,135.75 and the Plantation Index was 39.27 points higher to 7,890.50.

The Finance Index declined 41.28 points to 14,271.16.

Main market turnover decreased to 874.38 million shares worth RM1.48 billion from 1.03 billion shares worth RM1.61 billion yesterday.

The ACE Market volume declined to 257.50 million units valued at RM34.82 million from 534.53 million units valued at RM74.79 million yesterday.

Warrants slipped to 215.63 million shares worth RM41.06 million against 232.39 million shares worth RM43.31 million yesterday.         

Consumer products accounted for 46.55 million shares traded on the Main Market, industrial products (212.40 million), construction (43.21 million), trade and services (322.17 million), technology (42.89 million), infrastructure (9.87 million), SPAC (67.34 million), finance (40.02 million), hotels (956,500), properties (50.11 million), plantations (24.67 million), mining (nil), REITs (14.14 million) and closed/fund (48,000).  — Bernama