KUALA LUMPUR, Aug 24 — Bursa Malaysia closed on a mixed note today due to bargain hunting in the lower liners, interspersed with profit-taking in selected heavyweights, led by finance stocks amidst fresh catalysts, dealers said.

At the close, the benchmark FTSE Bursa Malaysia KLCI (FBM KLCI) ended 0.54 per cent or 8.54 points easier at 1,568.58 from last Friday’s close of 1,577.12.

The barometer index opened 1.43 points higher at 1,578.55 and moved between 1,567.10 and 1,581.27 throughout the day.

The negative performance in bluechip stocks, namely Petronas Chemicals, IHH Healthcare, Public Bank and Hartalega, dragged the composite index down by 10.55 points.

However, the overall market breadth was positive, with gainers surpassing losers 645 to 504, while 376 counters were unchanged, 493 untraded and 22 others suspended.

Total volume decreased to 9.95 billion shares worth RM5.76 billion from Friday’s 7.73 billion shares valued at RM5.02 billion.

An analyst said the local equity market was on a sideways trend as buying support was on the modest side, pending new leads.

Meanwhile, in a note, Kenanga Research said investors will be looking forward to the earnings announcements by listed companies this week, which must release their April-June quarterly report cards by end-August.

The more keenly awaited results will be from the likes of Kossan Rubber (on Tuesday), CIMB (Wednesday), Genting Bhd, Genting Malaysia, Maybank (Thursday), and Tenaga (Friday).

Additionally, the external trade statistics report for July is due to be announced on Friday, it said.

Among the heavyweights, Maybank slid seven sen to RM7.48, Top Glove eased 10 sen to RM27.90, Public Bank was down 32 sen to RM16.98, Hartalega shed 24 sen to RM17.50, while Tenaga was flat at RM11.00.

Of the actives, Iris improved two sen to 40 sen, XOX gained 2.5 sen to 23.5 sen and Bioalpha rose 4.5 sen to 32.5 sen.

The list of top losers was led by Panasonic Manufacturing which shed 56 sen to RM30.98, while Kossan Rubber and Heineken dropped 46 sen each to RM15.94 and RM21.04, respectively.

Top gainers UWC added 18 sen to RM5.74, Chin Hin recovered 17 sen to 95 sen and F&N bagged 16 sen to RM32.90.

On the index board, the FBM Emas Index dipped 32.03 points to 11,318.05, the FBMT 100 Index was 39.70 points lower at 11,119.54, while the FBM 70 strengthened 28.63 points to 14,764.91.

The FBM Emas Shariah Index contracted 3.73 points to 13,426.07, while FBM ACE increased 23.94 points to 10,945.82.

Sector-wise, the Financial Services Index lost 114.68 points to 12,911.81, the Industrial Products and Services Index slid 0.98 of-a-point to 141.29, while the Plantation Index rose 19.59 points to 7,059.25.

Main Market volume increased to 2.31 billion shares valued at RM4.12 million compared with 4.08 billion shares worth RM3.69 million on Friday.

Warrants turnover narrowed to 527.98 million units worth RM163.85 million versus 543.82 million units valued at RM168.75 million.

Volume on the ACE Market expanded to 4.09 billion shares worth RM1.47 billion from Friday’s 3.1 billion shares worth RM1.16 billion previously.

Consumer products and services accounted for 1.08 billion shares traded on the Main Market, industrial products and services (1.90 billion), construction (186.65 million), technology (521.35 million), SPAC (nil), financial services (64.95 million), property (319.63 million), plantations (52.87 million), REITs (7.17 million), closed/fund (12,000), energy (719.76 million), healthcare (155.57 million), telecommunications and media (69.38 million), transportation and logistics (195.81 million), and utilities (29.55 million). — Bernama