KUALA LUMPUR, March 1 — Bursa Malaysia closed lower today due to profit-taking activities, mainly in banking, oil and gas and telecommunication counters despite the positive regional market performance, a dealer said.

At 5pm, the benchmark FTSE Bursa Malaysia KLCI (FBM KLCI) slipped 11.84 points to 1,596.44 from 1,608.28 at yesterday’s close after opening 0.28 of-a-point better at 1,608.56.

The key index fluctuated between 1,593.57 and 1,620.44 throughout the trading session.

The overall market breadth was negative with decliners trouncing advancers 566 to 404, while 424 counters were unchanged, 853 untraded and 18 others suspended.

Total turnover fell to 3.21 billion units worth RM3.25 billion against yesterday’s 3.47 billion units worth RM3.97 billion.

Rakuten Trade Sdn Bhd vice-president of equity research Thong Pak Leng said key regional markets ended higher as investors were relieved after the completion of the first round of Russia-Ukraine talks.

“Meanwhile some investors are taking opportunities to bargain-hunt stocks at reduced levels following the recent sell-off,” he told Bernama.

Thong said the local market undertone to remain solid despite the profit-taking activities as the index was well supported by continuous inflow of foreign funds.

“Nonetheless, we are cautious of the increased market volatility. Hence, we anticipate the FBM KLCI to trend on a wider range of 1,590-1,620 for the remaining of the week with immediate resistance at 1,618 with support at 1,570,” he added.

As for heavyweights, Public Bank shed three sen to RM4.42, CIMB lost 42 sen to RM5.29, Maybank added 14 sen to RM8.90, Petronas Chemicals gained five sen to RM9.60 and Tenaga Nasional lost six sen to RM9.11.

Of the actives, SMTrack fell 1.5 sen to 22.5 sen, Bumi Armada dropped one sen to 46.5 sen and Hibiscus Petroleum added two sen to RM1.22.

On the index board, the FBM ACE inched down 15.43 points to 5,872.35, FBM 70 gained 43.96 points to 13,520.02, FBM Emas Index lost 55.93 points to 11,370.85, FBMT 100 Index decreased 56.38 points to 11,049.48, and the FBM Emas Shariah Index narrowed 26.10 points to 12,091.49.

Sector-wise, the Financial Services Index gave up 76.22 points to 16,448.68, the Industrial Products and Services Index was 1.06 points lower at 209.82, and the Plantation Index climbed 8.31 points to 8,323.82.

The Main Market volume declined to 2.20 billion shares worth RM3.02 billion from 2.34 billion shares worth RM3.70 billion yesterday.

Warrants turnover rose to 330.69 million units worth RM40.15 million against 314.05 million units worth RM46.12 million yesterday.

The ACE Market volume narrowed to 680.13 million shares valued at RM188.22 million versus 822.68 million shares valued at RM219.19 million previously.

Consumer products and services counters accounted for 342.25 million shares traded on the Main Market, industrial products and services (532.07 million), construction (90.40 million), technology (207.36 million), SPAC (nil), financial services (167.42 million), property (164.14 million), plantation (229.67 million), REITs (6.37 million), closed/fund (4,000), energy (310.32 million), healthcare (69.05 million), telecommunications and media (24.23 million), transportation and logistics (40.01 million), and utilities (19.07 million). — Bernama