KL shares extend downtrend

MALAYSIAN shares closed lower today, extending their downtrend as investors continued to cash out amid Wall Street's weaker performance overnight, dealers said.

At 5pm, the benchmark Kuala Lumpur Composite Index (KLCI) shed 10.85 points to 1,011.99 after opening 4.54 points lower at 1,018.30, with heavyweights leading the drop.

The dealers said the Wall Street downtrend, attributed to gloomy US retail sales report, dampened Asian stocks, resulting in mounting doubt over immediate recovery.

The KLCI, which has been on a downtrend since Monday, moved between 1,019.10and 1,012.00 throughout the day, with losses were driven mostly by finance-related stocks.

Finance counters were not be favourable as most investors stayed on the sidelines, awaiting the announcements of major companies' financial results," one of the dealers said.

Phua Kwee Hock, technical analyst at SJ Scurities, said the market saw some consolidation after the recent run-up.

"However, it paused as there was no encouraging development in the local front to help boost trading," he said.

Losers outnumbered gainers by 558 to 141 while 201 counters were unchanged,363 untraded and 55 others suspended.

Volume went down to 2.692 billion shares worth RM1.894 billion from 3.169 billion shares worth RM2.075 billion yesterday.

Among the actives, Scomi lost 3.5 sen to 72.5 sen, IRIS increased 1.5 sen 21 sen, KNM dropped three sen to 81.5 sen and SAAG went down 2.5 sen to 36.5 sen.

Among the heavyweights, Sime Darby advanced five sen to RM6.55 and Maybank rose two sen to RM4.98 while Bumiputra-Commerce decreased 10 sen to RM8.85 and Tenaga Nasional was flat at RM7.25. -- Bernama

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