KUALA LUMPUR: Share prices on Bursa ended broadly lower yesterday but last minute nibbling in heavyweights and persistent support for newly listed Maxis helped push the barometer to the positive territory.At 5pm, the FTSE Bursa Malaysia Kuala Lumpur Composite Index (FBM KLCI) perked 1.55 points to 1,276.65. It had opened 0.11 of a point lower at 1,274.99.

Maxis, which opened with a premium of 46 sen at RM5.46 over its institutional offer price of RM5, topped both the active and gainers list. It ended 42 sen higher at RM5.42.

“The market struggled to keep afloat as wider market sentiment remained sluggish, especially after Wall Street’s dismal overnight performance,” the dealer said.

He said although the much awaited listing of Maxis provided a liquidity boost and encouraged more institutional participation in bluechips, the overall profit taking consolidation mood in the broader market stayed.

TA Securites said the market’s immediate resistance for the KLCI will be at 1,288, while 1,305 will be a more significant upside hurdle.

“The immediate downside cushion is at 1,275,” it said in its morning note.

The FBM Emas Index edged up 0.96 of a point to 8,522.32, the FBM Top 100 jumped 7.4 points to 8,327.02 but the FBM 70 fell 3.39 points to 8,258.86. The FBM ACE declined 80.98 points to 4,387.6.

The Industrial Index dropped 7.33 points to 2,688.45 today but the Plantation Index added 45.53 points to 6,250.54 and the Finance Index dipped 16.8 points to 11,022.99.

Decliners outnumbered advancers by 457 to 238 while 245 counters were unchanged and 334 others untraded. Overall volume was higher at 1.351 billion shares worth RM2.685 billion compared with Wednesday’s 945.197 million shares worth RM1.017 billion.

Other actives Scomi Group-Loan Rights edged down one sen to 1.5 sen, Mlabs fell 10.5 sen to 23 sen and Yung Kong perked half a sen to 18.5 sen.

Of the heavyweights, Sime Darby, Maybank and Public Bank were flat at RM9.00, RM6.94 and RM10.98 respectively, while CIMB Group fell four sen to RM13.00.

Turnover on the Main Market went up to 995.030 million shares worth RM2.648 billion as against the 769.541 million shares worth RM995.299 million posted on Wednesday.

The ACE Market volume jumped to 104.681 million shares worth RM2.716 million from 55.66 million shares worth RM1.191 million previously.

The volume of Warrants climbed to 17.559 million units worth RM3.535 million against the 15.77 million units worth RM3.914 million previously.

Consumer products accounted for 39.09 million shares traded on the Main Market, industrial products 151.208 million, construction 30.198 million, trade and services 568.557 million, technology 43.013 million, infrastructure 13.308 million, finance 67.316 million, hotels 525,900, properties 49.289 million, plantations 29.872 million, mining 144,000, REITs 2.496 million and closed/fund 36,200. — Bernama