BURSA MALAYSIA >>> FBM KLCI Sheds Another 8.88 pts

Share prices on the Bursa Malaysia extended their downtrend to close lower on Wednesday as sentiment was weighed down by continuous selling. Dealers said the sell-off situation was also seen regionally, as doubts mounted on the global economic recovery.

At 5pm, the FTSE Bursa Malaysia Kuala Lumpur Composite Index (FBM KLCI) ended 8.88 points lower at 1,155.53, after opening 3.30 points higher at 1,167.71.
It moved in a tight-range of between 1,153.97 and 1,169.32 throughout the trading session today despite mild positive note on the Wall Street overnight. Wall Street, which has been seeing a big sell-off past few days, saw a slight rebound on better-than-expected corporate earnings report. However, the mild uptrend failed to lift up local sentiments. Throughout the day, all the market indices were on a downtrend as players continued to stay away from the market.

Maybank Investment Bank today said the FBM KLCI was correcting itself downwards, as a major rebound peak was sighted at the 1,196.46 point. "The market's rise since April 2009 has been quite relentless and is now ripe for correction," it added.

At close, the Finance Index was down 92.55 points to 9,355.64, the Plantation Index dipped 99.86 points to 5,759.78 while the Industrial Index decreased 5.88 points to 2,564.47. The FBM Emas Index slipped 83.47 points to 7,807.85, the FBM Top 100 eased 69.87 points to 7,581.17 and the FBM ACE Index declined 68.79 points to end at 4,174.55.

Losers led gainers 561 to 150, while 183 counters were unchanged, 367 untraded and three others suspended. Turnover decreased to 875.158 million shares worth RM1.301 billion from 1.004 billion shares valued at RM1.524 billion on Tuesday.

Volume leader, Newly-listed MSports lost 8.5 sen to 76.5 sen, KNM Group and KTB each eased 3.5 sen to 75.5 and 27 sen respectively,

MRCB slipped seven sen to RM1.28 while MMC Corp went down 11 sen to RN1.28. UEM Land declined seven sen to RM1.53, SAAG dropped one sen to 25 sen and Gamuda dipped 10 sen to RM3.00.

Lagging Movers were COMMERZ (-16 sen to RM10.28), IOI (-8 sen to RM5.01), AXIATA (-4 sen to RM3.04), KLK (-42 sen to RM12.98) and SIME DARBY (-4 sen to RM8.19).

Leading Movers were UMW HOLDINGS (+4 sen to RM6.15), PLUS EXPRESSWAYS (+1 sen to RM3.27), PETRONAS DAGANGAN (+5 sen to RM8.46), BAT (+10 sen to RM44.30) and PPB (+2 sen to RM14.92).

Market breadth was negative with 561 losers as compared to 151 gainers.

Among heavyweights, Sime Darby was four sen lower at RM8.19, Maybank shed three sen to RM6.40, Bumiputra-Commerce lost 16 sen to RM10.28 while Tenaga remained at RM8.00.

Volume on the Main Market was lower at 808.349 million shares worth RM1.287 billion from Tuesday's 912.388 million shares worth RM1.508 billion. The ACE market volume dipped to 34.237 million shares valued at RM6.408 million versus 50.911 million shares valued at RM7.708 million previously. Warrants declined to 28.835 million units worth RM5.625 million against 36.144 million units worth RM7.427 million yesterday.

Consumer products accounted for 154.909 million shares traded on the Main Market, industrial products 145.538 million, construction 56.856 million, trade/services 248.601 million, technology 26.972 million, infrastructure 13.432 million, finance 61.373 million, hotels 1.240 million, properties 74.346 million, plantations 23.380 million, mining 5,000, REITs 1.651 million and closed/fund 41,000.