KUALA LUMPUR, Jan 28 — Bursa Malaysia closed lower today on continued selling activities in selected heavyweights and lower liners, in tandem with most regional peers, dealers said.

At 5 pm, the benchmark FTSE Bursa Malaysia KLCI (FBM KLCI) ended Monday’s trading at 1,697.50, down 3.53 points or 0.20 per cent from Friday's close of 1,701.03.

The barometer index moved between 1,693.63 and 1,705.50 throughout the day, after opening 4.38 points higher at 1,705.41.

Market breadth was negative with 550 losers and 301 gainers while 355 counters were unchanged, 718 untraded and 44 others suspended.

Total volume eased to 2.25 billion shares, worth RM1.94 billion, from Friday’s 2.48 billion shares, valued at RM2.05 billion.

M&A Securities Sdn Bhd chief dealing officer R. Sundararajah said although investor’s sentiment was expected to boost the FBM KLCI, following the end of the US government shutdown on Friday, worries             re-emerged as a new round of high-level US-China trade talks was set to begin later in the week.

Besides, he said China’s slowing economy is a great concern and will have an immediate negative impact on equity markets in this region.

“The local bourse could end up weaker towards the end of the week as investors might want to take profits and trim their holdings in view of the long weekend ahead.

The market will be closed on Friday for the Federal Territory Day public holiday.

“We expect the market to be supported at around 1,685 level with resistance noted at 1,720 for the rest of this week,” he told Bernama.

Among heavyweights, Maybank was flat at RM9.66, Public Bank added two sen to RM24.82 while TNB fell six sen to RM13.58, Petronas Chemicals lost seven sen to RM8.62 and CIMB eased two sen to RM5.66.

Of  actives, Sapura Energy rose half-a-sen to 28.5 sen after the proposed exploration & production strategic partnership with Austria's OMV Aktiengesellschaft (OMV AG) was approved by shareholders at an Extraordinary General Meeting today.

Other actives included Bumi Armada which fell 1.5 sen to 21.5 sen and VS which shed half-a-sen to 80 sen.

The FBM Emas Index was 31.72 points lower at 11,754.24, the FBMT 100 Index decreased 28.76 points to 11,640.10 and the FBM Emas Shariah Index fell 41.25 points to 11,6840.48.

The FBM 70 dipped 53.29 points to 13,927.00 and the FBM Ace Index declined 71.36 points to 4,393.09.

Sector-wise, the Financial Services fell 18.10 points to 17,618.43, the Industrial Products and Services Index was down 1.14 points to 163.05 but the Plantation Index gained 10.72 points to 7,312.89.

Main Market volume dropped to 1.69 billion shares, valued at RM1.84 billion, against Friday's 1.76 billion shares worth RM1.93 billion.

Warrants turnover narrowed to 325.40 million units, worth RM71.40 million, against 397.69 million units, valued at RM75.17 million, transacted on Friday.

Volume on the ACE Market decreased to 226.61 million shares, valued at RM33.23 million, compared with 324.47 million shares, worth RM51.60 million, recorded on Friday.

Consumer products and services accounted for 306.35 million shares traded on the Main Market, industrial products and services (221.86 million), construction (105.55 million), technology (100.07 million), SPAC (nil), financial services (47.82 million), property (79.70 million), plantations (28.26 million), REITs (29.02 million), closed/fund (16,500), energy (657.14 million), healthcare (33.30 million), telecommunications and media (53.61 million), transportation and logistics (19.63 million) and, utilities (16.88 million). — Bernama