Malaysian shares down 1.27pc

SHARES on Bursa Malaysia closed lower today as investors took profit from the recent run-up, dealers said.

At 5pm, the benchmark Kuala Lumpur Composite Index (KLCI) fell 1.27 per cent or 12.56 points to close the day at 980.12. The key index had opened 3.07 points higher at 995.75 this morning.

Dealers said profit taking activities in the major plantation and financial stocks dragged down the key index into negative territory.

They said news of the outbreak of swine flu in Mexico also dampened the local market sentiment as well as regional markets.


However, they said the announcement of the liberalisation measures for the country's financial sector had provided support to the market.

At close, the Finance Index fell 81.01 points to 7,528.95, the Plantation Index declined 54.12 points to 4,992.77 and the Industrial Index dropped 15.79 points to 2,242.06.

Of the FTSE-BM series, the FBMEmas declined 100.59 points to 6,470.59, the FBM30 went down 87.21 points to 6,276.11, the FBM2BRD shed 0.66 of a point to 4,309.56 and the FBM-MDQ dropped 146.77 points to 3,470.38.

Losers led gainers by 510 to 184 while 169 counters were unchanged, 379 untraded and 36 others suspended.

Overall volume increased to 2.109 billion shares valued at RM1.418 billion compared with 2.082 billion shares worth RM1.667 billion last Friday. - BERNAMA

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