KUALA LUMPUR: Last-minute selling interest pushed the FBM KLCI lower on Tuesday, after vacillating between gains and losses throughout the day.
At closing, the benchmark index was 2.46 points or 0.16% weaker at 1,516.95, after touching an intraday high of 1,522.43 and a low of 1,516.23.
Market breadth was nearly even with 437 gainers and 441 decliners, while 533 counters stayed unchanged. Trading volume stood at 2.72 billion shares worth RM2.1bil.
Among the KLCI-component stocks, there were 10 closed higher while 14 counters fell.
Nestle slid 74 sen to RM75, Ayer lost 40 sen to RM7.20, Allianz fell 28 sen to RM19.12 and Dutch Lady
declined 20 sen to RM29.50.
Among the gainers, Malaysian Pacific Industries added 30 sen to RM21.20, F&N rose 28 sen to RM27.80, Carlsberg gained 26 sen to RM19.72 and Heineken climbed 20 sen to RM27.
Newly listed Paradigm-REIT closed flat on its debut at RM1, with 44.59 million shares traded.
On the forex market, the ringgit slipped 0.1% against the US dollar to 4.2360, but edged up 0.02% against the Singapore dollar to 3.2923.
Elsewhere in the region, MSCI's Asia ex-Japan stock index rose 0.54%.
Japan’s Nikkei 225 rose 0.32% to 38,211.51, while South Korea’s Kospi closed up 0.56% at 2,871.85.
Hong Kong’s Hang Seng Index slipped 0.08% to 24,162.87, while China’s CSI300 fell 0.51% to 3,865.46 and the Shanghai Composite Index eased 0.44% to 3,384.82.
