KUALA LUMPUR, Aug 28 — Bursa Malaysia ended lower today, weighed down by broad-based selling ahead of the long weekend.

Next Monday will be a public holiday as Malaysians celebrate Merdeka Day.

At 5pm, the FTSE Bursa Malaysia KLCI (FBM KLCI) slid 15.84 points to 1,725.88, compared with Thursday’s close of 1,741.72.

The benchmark index opened 1.98 points higher at 1,743.70 and fluctuated between 1,715.91 and 1,745.06 throughout the day.

On the broader market, losers outpaced gainers 917 to 405, while 461 counters were unchanged, 1,070 untraded and 98 suspended.

Turnover surged to 5.06 billion units valued at RM6.51 billion from 3.85 billion units valued at RM3.46 billion on Thursday. 

Rakuten Trade Sdn Bhd vice-president of equity research Thong Pak Leng said sentiment remained cautious following today’s broad-based sell-off, with decliners outnumbering gainers by more than two to one.

He said market participation remained healthy, with some 5 billion shares worth RM6.5 billion changing hands.

“The relatively high trading value against market volume suggests significant activity in higher-priced and larger-cap stocks, while the strong turnover despite the weak market breadth indicates that investors were actively picking up shares at lower levels.

“With valuations becoming more attractive following the recent weakness, we believe selective bargain hunting could provide support when trading resumes next week,” he told Bernama.

Among the heavyweights, Maybank added six sen to RM10.68 while IHH Healthcare gained 10 sen to RM8.25. Public Bank slid five sen to RM4.95, CIMB Group eased 11 sen to RM7.96 and Tenaga Nasional lost 16 sen to RM14.14.

On the most active list, Zetrix AI slipped 30 sen to 29.5 sen, Tanco went down by two sen to 18.5 sen, and JAKS Resources was flat at 12.5 sen. Inari Amertron gained six sen to RM2.56, while Oppstar edged down 4.5 sen to 77 sen.

Of the top gainers, United Plantations surged 66 sen to RM31.94, Spritzer rose 33 sen to RM3.55, MBM Resources improved 26 sen to RM5.30, Mega Fortris gained 19 sen to RM2.30, and APM Automotive added 17 sen to RM3.

As for the top losers, Nestle dropped RM2.90 to RM100.10, Malaysian Pacific Industries shed RM1.26 to RM41.56, MISC slipped 56 sen to RM7.92, LPI Capital and Fraser & Neave gave up 42 sen each to RM13.48 and RM25.48.

On the index board, the FBM Mid 70 Index erased 228.27 points to 18,084.89, the FBM Emas Shariah Index decreased 144.83 points to 12,552.09 and the FBM Emas Index dropped 127.48 points to 12,764.63.

The FBM Top 100 Index lost 126.41 points to 12,574.85, and the FBM ACE Index declined 102.84 points to 5,249.38.

By sector, the Plantation Index decreased 33.55 points to 9,309.66, while the Financial Services Index lost 129.81 points to 20,243.47, the Industrial Products and Services Index edged down 0.11 of a point to 189.27, and the Energy Index went down 6.68 points to 778.38.

The Main Market volume grew to 3.39 billion units valued at RM6.11 billion compared with 2.13 billion units valued at RM3.11 billion on Thursday. 

Warrant turnover eased to 991.46 million units worth RM152.07 million versus 1.20 billion units worth RM156.70 million previously.

The ACE Market volume increased to 681.03 million units valued at RM245.54 million from 516.25 million units valued at RM198.44 million yesterday.

Consumer products and services counters accounted for 345.38 million shares traded on the Main Market, industrial products and services (419.16 million), construction (219.04 million), technology (1.43 billion), financial services (238.55 million), property (252.78 million), plantation (67.26 million), real estate investment trusts (18.68 million), closed-end fund (20,500), energy (101.20 million), healthcare (88.53 million), telecommunications and media (58.10 million), transportation and logistics (45.59 million), utilities (102.85 million), and business trusts (78,300). — Bernama