Bursa Shares End Broadly Lower

Source: Bernama.Com

KUALA LUMPUR, Aug 17 (Bernama) -- Share prices on Bursa Malaysia ended lower Monday on continuous selling activities across the board, dealers said.The FTSE Bursa Malaysia Kuala Lumpur Composite Index (FBM KLCI) declined 19.52 points to close at 1,169.05, after opening 1.32 points lower at 1,187.25.An analyst said the market was in a correction mode after recent gains with the FBM KLCI reaching the 1,190-point level last week."The downtrend was due to heavy profit taking and there was no fresh catalyst to boost it."The market needs it but I don't think there will be any fresh catalyst in the near-term," said SJ Securities analyst Phua Kwee Hock.He said the decline was also in line with the softer regional markets after the announcement of poor US consumer confidence data recently."The data failed to lift up the market, erasing hopes among investors on the world economic recession," he added.

At the close, the Finance Index went down 194.88 points to 9,455.31, the Plantation Index dipped 127.58 points to 5,939.38 and the Industrial Index decreased 33.22 points to 2,575.83.The FBM Emas Index slipped 162.18 points to 7,899.08, the FBM Top 100 eased 141.40 points to 7,671.14 and the FBM ACE Index declined 89.83 points to 4,216.64.Losers led gainers by 701 to 93 while 111 counters were unchanged and 331 others untraded.Total turnover decreased to 1.023 billion shares worth RM1.435 billion from 1.051 billion shares valued at RM1.556 billion last Friday.Volume leader KNM Group went down 4.5 sen to 75 sen while TA dropped seven sen to RM1.16, MRCB dipped eight sen to RM1.33, Axiata lost 13 sen to RM3.00 and Telekom Malaysia rose a sen to RM3.08.UEM Land slipped seven sen to RM1.56 sen and AirAsia inched down half a sen to RM1.44.Among heavyweights, Sime Darby declined 12 sen to RM8.30, Maybank was 13 sen lower at RM6.47, Bumiputra-Commerce lost 24 sen to RM10.50, Tenaga Nasional dipped three sen to RM8.10 and IOI Corporation was lower by 15 sen at RM5.20.Volume on the Main Market stood at 904.397 million shares worth RM1.414 billion, lower from last Friday's 931,588 million shares worth RM1.536 billion.Tthe ACE Market volume dipped to 72.808 million shares valued at RM11.237 million from 80.976 million shares valued at RM10.643 million.

Warrants, however, rose to 41.008 million units worth RM8.121 million from 34.939 million units worth RM7.967 million.Consumer products accounted for 40.815 million shares traded on the Main Market, industrial products 255.488 million, construction 76.080 million, trade/services 305.317 million, technology 18.790 million, infrastructure 12.012 million, finance 70.503 million, hotels 2.053 million, properties 90.185 million, plantations 32.075 million, mining 53,000, REITs 952,900 and closed/fund 75,300.