KUALA LUMPUR, July 5 — Bursa Malaysia wrapped up the week in the negative zone as the local stock market remained under selling pressure exerted by profit-takers due to the recent gains.

At 5pm, the FTSE Bursa Malaysia KLCI (FBM KLCI) finished 4.95 points or 0.29 per cent easier at 1,682.53 compared with Thursday’s close of 1,687.48.

Inter-Pacific Securities head of research Pong Teng Siew said the local bourse had been on the uptrend since the middle of May 2019, when the key index fell to as low as 1,580 points.

“Now, it has moved up over 100 points to the current level of about 1,680 and, therefore, prompted the profit-taking activities which resulted in a negative market breadth,” he told Bernama.

At the close, breadth in the broader market was negative, with 480 decliners overtaking 350 advancers, while 413 counters remained unchanged, 604 were untraded and 21 others were suspended.

The index ticked up 0.12 of-a-point to 1,687.60 — the day’s high — at the opening before sliding into negative territory. It fell as low as 1,677.08 during the day.

Despite trending lower, Pong said the market benchmark was supported by buying in construction, finance, healthcare, telecommunications, media, oil and gas, as well as technology counters.

Meanwhile, at the close, Tenaga remained the biggest loser among heavyweight stocks, with its share price retreating 54 sen to RM13.60.

The sole electric utility provider in Peninsular Malaysia was also one of the top decliners on the exchange, following news that the government was conducting a study to determine whether new energy suppliers should be allowed to enter the market.

Other blue chip counters that were in the red included Axiata and AMMB, which fell six sen each at RM5.20 and RM4.35 respectively, while Maxis and MISC shed one sen each at RM5.69 and RM7.26 respectively.

Top loser Allianz-PA erased RM1.00 to RM13.50, while the top gainer was F&N, putting on 26 sen to RM34.96.

KNM maintained its position as the most actively traded counter throughout the day, bagging 1.5 sen to 31.5 sen. Iris trimmed half-a-sen to 15 sen, Green Packet was one sen better at 39 sen, Ekovest was down half-a-sen at 87 sen and Sumatec was unchanged at 3.5 sen.

The FBM 70 shrank 48.43 points to 14,889.97 and the FBMT 100 Index lost 35.43 points to 11,741.42, but the FBM Ace advanced 37.35 points to 4,660.41.

The FBM Emas Index shed 33.64 points to 11,905.29 and the FBM Emas Shariah Index wiped out 59.94 points to 12,274.35.

Sector-wise, the Financial Services Index was 15.95 points better at 16,798.61, the Industrial Products & Services Index edged up 0.08 of-a-point to 162.52 and the Plantation Index accumulated 33.66 points to 6,977.13.

Total transaction volume was slightly lower at 2.57 billion units worth RM1.82 billion compared with 2.83 billion units worth RM1.82 billion on Thursday.

Main Market volume narrowed to 1.69 billion shares worth RM1.63 billion from 1.90 billion shares worth RM1.58 billion yesterday.

Warrants turnover fell to 372.91 million units valued of RM80.95 million versus 429.07 million units valued at RM106.52 million on Thursday.

Volume on the ACE Market improved to 510.87 million shares worth RM111.19 million compared to 500.72 million shares worth RM127.19 million previously.

Consumer products and services accounted for 217.22 million shares traded on the Main Market, industrial products and services (218.21 million), construction (208.52 million), technology (144.85 million), SPAC (nil), financial services (31.55 million), property (137.24 million), plantation (10.66 million), REITs (17.69 million), closed/fund (1,000), energy (481.46 million), healthcare (25.62 million), telecommunications and media (128.15 million), transportation and logistics (48.06 million) and utilities (22.60 million). — Bernama