KUALA LUMPUR: Bursa Malaysia cooled off following two days of gains as investors remained cautious amid mixed regional market performance.
The benchmark FBM KLCI closed down 1.49 points, or 0.09% to 1,590.38 after moving between 1,593.24 and 1,579.69 throughout the day.
Market breadth turned negative as losers overpowered the gainers on a ratio of 652-to-444 stocks. Traded volumes stood at 4.3 billion shares worth RM3.1bil.
Heineken Malaysia
was the top gainer on Bursa Malaysia, rising 68 sen to RM22.58, followed by Carlsberg, which added 52 sen to RM18.60 and Malaysian Pacific Industries, which rose 50 sen to RM36.
Among the decliners, Dutch Lady slid 16 sen to RM30.34, Hong Leong Financial Group fell 14 sen to RM17.06, Crescendo lost 14 sen to RM4.17 and YTL Power declined 14 sen to RM4.23.
Meanwhile, stock market data showed foreign investors and retailers were net sellers, offloading equities worth RM45mil and RM64mil respectively on Wednesday.
Local institutions emerged as net buyers with total purchases valued at RM109mil.
On the forex market, the ringgit was up 0.53% against the greenback to 4.4740.
Reuters reported that the ringgit jumped 0.6% earlier. It has rallied sharply since mid-July and is the only Asian currency to log a year-to-date gain.
The local currency rose by 0.58% against the pound sterling, now at 5.6829, and up 0.26% against the Singapore dollar at 3.3779.
Around the region, MSCI's Asia ex-Japan stock index was weaker by 0.35%.
Japan’s Nikkei 225 ended down 0.74% at 34,831.15, while South Korea’s Kospi ended 0.45% lower at 2,556.73.
Hong Kong’s Hang Seng index closed up 0.08% at 16,891.83 while China’s blue-chip CSI300 index rose 0.04% at 3,342.94.
