Bursa Malaysia slips with over 800 stocks in the red

KUALA LUMPUR: Bursa Malaysia ended broadly lower with over 800 stocks in the red, mirroring regional equity declines due to profit-taking in index-linked stocks.

At closing, the FBM KLCI ended down 9.78 points, or 0.6% to 1,619.40 after rising to an intraday high of 1,624.96. For the week, the benchmark index added 0.17%.

Stocks that fell outnumbered those that rose 845 to 450, with 442 counters traded unchanged. A total of 5.6 billion shares changed hands, worth RM4.58bil in all.

Among the losers on Bursa Malaysia, Malaysian Pacific Industries slid 66 sen to RM38.50, British American Tobacco lost 61 sen to RM8.43, PETRONAS Dagangan fell 52 sen to RM19.90, YTL Power declined 43 sen to RM4.95.

Kuala Lumpur Kepong jumped 34 sen to RM22.20, BLD Plantation gained 30 sen to RM10.98, Hong Leong Industries rose 22 sen to RM11.80 and Inari closed up 21 sen to RM3.44.

According to data on Bursa Malaysia, foreign investors acquired RM474mil worth of local equities on Thursday.

Local institutions and retailers sold RM355mil and RM119mil worth of equities yesterday.

On the forex market, the ringgit was down 0.27% against the greenback to 4.7165. The local unit fell 0.14% to 3.4908 against the Singapore dollar.

Among the key regional markets:

Japan’s Nikkei 225 closed down 1.17% to 38,646.11;

Hong Kong’s Hang Seng Index rose 1.38% to 18,608.94;

China’s CSI 300 Index declined 1.11% to 3,601.48;

Taiwan’s Taiex fell 0.19% to 21,565.34;

South Korea’s Kospi closed down 1.26% to 2,687.60 and;

Singapore’s Straits Times Index fell 0.13% to 3,318.27 points.