BURSA MALAYSIA: KL Shares End Lower On Lack Of Direction

Lack of direction in the local market saw share prices on Bursa Malaysia closing lower Friday, with selling pressure across the board, said dealers.

At close, the FTSE Bursa Malaysia Kuala Lumpur Composite Index (FBM KLCI) shed 2.1 points to 1,206.25 after opening 4.15 points easier at 1,204.2.

Jupiter Securities head of research Pong Teng Siew said investors remain cautious in the absence of major catalysts, with both foreign and local funds shying away for now. "It's just a lack of direction in the market. And people continue to be cautious even ahead of the 2010 Budget expected this month because the government might cap spending activities to keep a lid on the country's deficit," he said.

Pong said regional markets were also down in line with the downtrend in the US market as a disappointing data fuelled concerns about the country's economy.

The FBMEmas fell 27.08 points to 8,095.25, the FBM Top 100 shed 22.56 points to 7,894.68 and the FBM70 dwindled 57.58 points to 7,936.55 but the FBM ACE Index gained 4.83 points to 4,095.33. The Technology Index edged lower at 0.14 of a point to 16.44, the Finance Index declined 38.27 points to 9,933.65, the Plantation Index slipped 3.96 points to 5,895.03 and the Industrial Index lost 5.67 points at 2,627.6.

Losers led gainers by 467 to 192 while 221 counters were unchanged and 383 untraded. Turnover rose to 618.181 million shares worth RM871.854 million from 521.508 million shares worth RM822.688 million yesterday.

A local analyst said although the local market was down, it was not as bad as its regional counterparts. "Some of the heavyweights' gain Friday had helped limit the losses," he said.

For the top gainers, IRCB, AMMB-CD and ASIAEP-WB each gained half a sen to 54.5 sen, 33 sen and 3.5 sen, respectively. The top losers saw DFZ losing 12 sen to RM4.35, BHIC shed 11 sen to RM4.94 and SUPERLN lost 10.5 sen to 39.5 sen.

Leading the actives, GPACKET-WA added 22.5 sen to 23 sen while KNM and SAAG declined half a sen each to 74.5 sen and 20.5 sen, respectively. Among heavyweights, Sime Darby slipped one sen to RM8.53, Maybank was down four sen to RM6.64 while CIMB Group went up two sen to RM11.14. Tenaga Nasional was flat at RM8.21 while IOI Corp rose one sen to RM5.22, DiGi climbed six sen to RM21.66 and Tanjong jumped 24 sen to RM15.32.

On the Main Market, turnover increased to 522.249 million shares worth RM847.159 million from 439.154 million shares worth RM804.006 million on Thursday.

The ACE market volume rose to 68.692 million shares valued at RM16.77 million versus 50.518 million shares valued at RM10.033 million previously.