KUALA LUMPUR: Share prices on Bursa Malaysia ended the day broadly lower yesterday as sentiment weakened regionally amid worries of a global financial downturn, said dealers.

They said selling was moderate and investors were reluctant to hold fresh positions ahead of the long weekend with the Deepavali celebration on Monday.

The benchmark Kuala Lumpur Composite Index (KLCI) slipped 12.96 points to end the session at 891.32, the lowest point since mid-2006, after opening 12.47 points lower at 891.81 yesterday morning.

Throughout the session, the KLCI moved between 880.81 and 893.97.

“Foreign investors were the net sellers in most Asian markets. They are holding back their portfolio investments at the moment, waiting to see the finances of their respective countries in order first,” said a dealer.

The Industrial Index fell 30.23 points to 2,108.97, the Finance Index shed 130.48 points to 6,851.72 and the Plantation Index eased 111.41 points to 3,688.62.

The FBMEmas slipped 72.81 points to 5,882.39, the FBM30 lost 55.28 points to 5,812.98, the FBM2BRD decreased 78.58 points to 4,365.15 while the FBMMesdaq Index was 91.59 points lower at 3,342.37.

Losers outnumbered gainers by 477 to 161 while 188 counters were unchanged, 506 untraded and 26 others suspended. Volume rose to 579.384 million shares worth RM1.043 billion from yesterday’s 510.391 million shares worth RM1.067 billion.

According to the dealers, plantations stocks were the most hit after global crude palm oil slipped to RM1,500 per tonne, thus shrinking further the profit margins of planter’s.

Leading the actives was Lion Industries which eased 4.5 sen to 54.5 sen with 562,795 lots changing hands.

Among others, KNM Group shed 3.5 sen to 59.5 sen, IOI Corp slipped two sen to RM3.02, Intelligent Edge fell half a sen to 5.5 sen and Sime Darby erased 10 sen to RM6.25.

As for the key heavyweights, MISC dropped 20 sen to RM8.20, Maybank fell 15 sen to RM5.15, while Tenaga Nasional was flat at RM6.45. Public Bank however gained five sen to RM8.75 while Bumiputra-Commerce shed 25 sen to RM6.80.

Volume on the Main Board rose to 494.566 million shares worth RM1.029 billion from 435.870 million shares worth RM1.054 billion on Wednesday. Turnover on the Second Board increased to 21.967 million units worth RM6.607 million from the 16.216 million units worth RM5.642 million previously.

Volume on the Mesdaq Market increased to 50.712 million shares worth RM6.287 million from 40.925 million shares worth RM6.760 million previously.

Call warrants slipped to 12.138 million units worth RM433,364 from 17.378 million units worth RM661,810 on Wednesday.

Direct business deals improved to 37.670 million shares worth RM29.699 million from the 10.778 million shares worth RM13.625 million previously. On a sectoral basis, consumer products accounted for 10.978 million shares traded on the Main Board, industrial products 139.490 million, construction 36.264 million, trade/services 128.151 million, technology 5.213 million, infrastructure 15.043 million, finance 49.088 million, hotels 585,700, properties 52.359 million, plantations 36.770 million, mining 7,500, REITs 1.125 million, closed/fund 133,300, ETF 1.603 million and loans 17.750 million.

— Bernama