KUALA LUMPUR: Share prices on Bursa Malaysia closed lower yesterday on late selling with investors cautious ahead of the government’s announcement on the new oil subsidy scheme, dealers said.

At 5pm, the benchmark Kuala Lumpur Composite Index (KLCI) declined 4.45 points or 0.35 per cent to 1,253.12 after opening 0.13 of a point higher at 1,257.70.

The Industrial Index fell 26.25 points to 2,650.59 and the Finance Index decreased 44.31 points to 9,610.86 while the Plantation Index increased 16.12 points to 7,849.72.

Of the FTSE-BM Index series, the FBMEmas fell 14.53 points to 8,379.82 and the FBM30 eased 1.86 points to 8,105.61.

For the other indices, the FBM2BRD declined 85.08 points to 5,657.18 and the FBM-MDQ dropped 59.31 points to 4,717.82.

Losers outnumbered gainers by 525 to 186 while 226 counters were unchanged, 477 untraded and 28 suspended.

Trading volume, however, increased to 518.251 million shares valued at RM1.230 billion from 464.723 million shares worth RM1.154 billion.

According to one of the dealers, investors were very cautious, waiting for details on the new subsidy scheme, which is expected to result in higher pump prices in August.

He said there was little catalyst to encourage investors to participate actively in the market.

The sharp fall on Wall Street overnight also dampened sentiment in the local market, he added.

Topping the most active stocks were AirAsia which declined 3.5 sen to 95.5 sen, Gamuda which eased five sen to RM2.58 and Tenaga Nasional which rose 30 sen to RM7.30.

Others included Gula Perak and Ancom-WA which were both flat at five sen and one sen respectively.

Of the heavyweights, Sime Darby fell 15 sen to RM9.10 while IOI Corp gained 15 sen to RM7.30.

Public Bank was flat at RM11.30 while Maybank and Bumiputra-Commerce declined five sen each to RM7.35 and RM9.40.

Volume on the Main Board rose to 443.060 million shares valued at RM1.209 billion from 383.643 million shares worth RM1.136 billion yesterday.

Turnover on the Second Board increased to 24.493 million shares worth RM15.399 million from 20.076 million shares valued at RM9.209 million.

Volume on the Mesdaq Market, however, dropped to 17.907 million shares valued at RM4.812 million from 40.882 million shares worth RM8.698 million.

Call warrants were higher at 32.792 million shares valued at RM1.481 million compared to 20.122 million shares worth RM680,698.

Direct business deals also went up to 24.691 million shares worth RM39.709 million from 21.296 million shares valued at RM14.167 million. — Bernama