KL bourse lower in moderate trading

SHARE prices on Bursa Malaysia closed on a lower note yesterday, with losses mostly seen in banking and palm oil stocks, dealers said.

In moderate trading activity, the FTSE Bursa Malaysia KLCI (FBM KLCI) fell 10.32 points to end at 1,646.22. The index, which opened at 1,653.47, hovered between 1,641.74 and 1,653.88 throughout the day.

Hong Leong Financial and RHB Capital declined 30 sen each to RM15.08 and RM8.15, respectively.

Decliners led advancers 477 to 225, with 284 counters unchanged, 646 untraded and 18 others suspended.

Total volume slipped to 766.76 million shares valued at RM1.65 billion from 931.93 million shares valued at RM1.72 billion on Tuesday.

The Finance Index dropped 142.18 points to 15,302.36 and the Plantation Index shed 54.83 points to 7,920.15. The Industrial Index, however, rose 7.38 points to 2,846.3.

The FBM Emas Index lost 70.83 points to 11,252.22, the FBMT100 fell 67.98 points to 11,096.42, and the FBM Mid 70 Index slipped 69.25 points to 12,477.43. The FBM ACE Index was 5.79 points weaker at 3,972.5.

Among blue chips, Maybank eased one sen to RM9.19, Axiata shed three sen to RM6.36, but Sime Darby added one sen to RM9.21.

Of the gainers, Dutch Lady Milk rose one sen to RM46.60 and Petronas Gas advanced 36 sen to RM18.96.

Meanwhile, the FBM KLCI futures contracts on Bursa Malaysia Derivatives also closed lower yesterday.

March 2013 fell 13 points to 1,640, April 2013 and September 2013 eased 3.5 points each to 1,638 and 1,640.5, respectively, while June 2013 lost 16.5 points.

Turnover totalled 11,234 lots, while open interest was at 43,539 contracts. Bernama