KUALA LUMPUR, Sept 4 — Bursa Malaysia ended the week lower dragged by significant sell-offs in finance- and plantation-linked counters.

Public Bank, IOI Corp, Sime Darby Plantation and KLK lost 10 sen, six sen, four sen and 24 sen to RM16, RM4.40, RM5.04 and RM22.56 respectively.

Altogether, these stocks contributed 2.59 points to the loss in the composite index.

However, the benchmark FTSE Bursa Malaysia KLCI (FBM KLCI) was marginally higher, adding 0.46 of-a-point to 1,515.86 from 1,515.40 recorded at Thursday’s close, after a volatile trading day.

The market was backed by 11th hour bargain-hunting by institutional investors.

On the broader market, losers overwhelmed gainers 657 to 388, while 432 counters were unchanged, 549 untraded and 37 others suspended.

Total volume slipped to 7.04 billion shares valued at RM4.08 billion from 9.4 billion shares valued at RM5.42 billion yesterday.

Bank Islam Malaysia Bhd economist Adam Mohamed Rahim said even though the FBM KLCI closed marginally higher today, the local market undertone was weaker in conformity with other Asian markets which were in the red territory.

“Asian shares opened lower earlier, tracking the losses on Wall Street overnight amid the sell-offs in technology shares,” he told Bernama.

Hong Kong’s Hang Seng erased 1.25 per cent to 24,695.45, Japan’s Nikkei 225 declined 1.11 per cent to 23,205.43 and Singapore Straits Times Index was 0.87 per cent lower at 2,509.64.

Adam said on a sectoral basis, the local healthcare index remained the biggest laggard with a loss of more than one per cent.

Meanwhile, the tech-linked index continues to be under persistent sell-offs, shaving off 1.8 per cent.

Only two of the healthcare-linked companies recorded gains at close today. Top Glove added one sen to RM8.38 and Hartalega gained 14 sen to RM14.

Of the heavyweights, Maybank was flat at RM7.21, Tenaga rose 12 sen to RM11.16, Public Bank lost 10 sen to RM16 and IHH Healthcare was two sen weaker at RM5.26.

Among top gainers, Allianz-PA jumped 62 sen to RM14.60, while United Malacca and Country View added 17 sen each to RM4.87 and RM1.20 respectively.

Among the actives, XOX inched up one sen to 24 sen, K-One gained 3.5 sen to 44.5 sen and AE Multi was 2.5 sen better at 19.5 sen.

On the index board, the FBM Emas Index dipped 39.94 points to 10,972.30, the FBMT 100 Index gave up 37.80 points to 10,770.54, and the FBM 70 declined 210.37 points to 14,398.18.

The FBM Emas Shariah Index slid 49.67 points to 13,009.82 and the FBM ACE dropped 44.61 points to 10,806.05.

Sector-wise, the Financial Services Index shed 9.80 points to 12,637.86, the Industrial Products and Services Index inched down 0.57 of-a-point to 136.93 and the Plantation Index was 64.61 points weaker at 7,063.25.

Main Market volume decreased to 3.78 billion shares worth RM3.16 billion from 5.61 billion shares valued at RM4.36 billion.

Warrants turnover widened to 699.50 million units valued at RM209.20 million versus 677.89 million units worth RM214.84 million.

Volume on the ACE Market narrowed to 2.56 billion shares worth RM707.46 million from 3.11 billion shares worth RM846.11 million.

Consumer products and services accounted for 867.81 million shares traded on the Main Market, industrial products and services (1.16 billion), construction (222.75 million), technology (349.56 million), SPAC (nil), financial services (37.48 million), property (272.88 million), plantations (140 million), REITs (7.4 million), closed/fund (70,000), energy (460.48 million), healthcare (124.59 million), telecommunications and media (57.28 million), transportation and logistics (51.74 million), and utilities (25.49 million). — Bernama