KL shares end in red

Share prices on Bursa Malaysia finished in the red territory on profit-taking activities amid mixed trading sentiment in regional stock markets, dealers said.

At 5pm, the FTSE Bursa Malaysia KLCI (FBM KLCI) was 3.17 points lower at 1,624.18, led by plantation stocks.

The benchmark index, which opened at 1,624.97, hovered between 1,622.47 and 1,627.33 throughout the day.

The market's performance was in tandem with the regional trend, dealers said.

HwangDBS Vickers Research said the bears were making a comeback in Asia today following Wall Street's overnight slump.

Major US equity indices plunged between 1.4 per cent and 1.8 per cent at the closing bell, the research house said.

"Sentiment was hit by concerns over a possible hung Parliament in Italy and the deteriorating Eurozone's debt woes," it said in a note.

The research house also said that the key index surrendered parts of recent gains as it had posted a rebound of 14 points or 0.9 per cent over the past three days.

The Plantation Index lost 33.51 points to 7,884.17 and the Industrial Index declined 2.94 points to 2,782.13.

The FBM Emas Index slipped 17.4 points to 11,040.89, the FBMT100 declined 17.7 points to 10,895.22 and the FBM Mid 70 Index dipped 3.091 points to 12,010.02.

The Finance Index rose 11.551 points to 15,012.11 and the FBM Ace Index was 10.77 points higher at 3,944.62.

Decliners led advancers 339 to 311 with 297 counters unchanged, 729 untraded and 56 others suspended.

Total volume declined to 801.35 million shares valued at RM1.37 billion from 850.5 million shares worth RM1.4 billion yesterday.

Among top gainers were United Plantations which rose RM1.40 to RM27.70, British American Tobacco which gained 70 sen to RM58.30 and Aeon which increased 54 sen to RM13.38.

Among the actives, Patimas lost half sen to five sen, while GPRO
Technologies and Compugates Holdings were flat at 11 sen and nine sen respectively.

Of the heavyweights, Maybank fell one sen to RM9.14, while Sime Darby and Axiata declined two sen each to RM9.17 and RM6.33 respectively.

Volume on the Main Market increased to 643.19 million shares worth RM1.35 billion from yesterday's 608.33 million shares valued at RM1.39 billion.

Turnover on the ACE market decreased to 136.76 million units worth RM12.65 million from 220 million units valued at RM21.8 million.

Warrants declined to 20.3 million units worth RM1.74 million versus 21.5 million units valued at RM1.67 million previously.

Consumer products accounted for 17.03 million shares on the Main Market, industrial products 120.6 million, construction 36.77 million, trade and services 222.64 million, technology 101.69 million, infrastructure 22.5 million, finance 53.3 million, hotels 239,900, properties 55.3 million, plantations 9.2 million, mining 94,000, REITs 3.84 million and closed/fund 19,900.-- Bernama