KL shares fall in cautious trade

MALAYSIAN shares extended a seven-day low amid a bearish market as investors remained cautious over the gloomy economic outlook, dealers said.

"The overnight rise on Wall Street somewhat helped the key index to rebound at the opening today," a dealer said yesterday.

"However, it was unable to sustain the gains from the afternoon session until closing, as profit-taking emerged over continued worries on the prospects of the global economy," the dealer added.

At close market barometer Kuala Lumpur Composite Index (KLCI) tumbled by 0.62 per cent or 5.44 points to 877.65, led by losses on index-linked counters. The key index had opened 0.88 of a point higher at 883.97.

The Industrial Index lost 7.54 points to 2,132.23, the Finance Index went down 65.62 points to 6,697.39 and the Plantation Index declined 10.64 points to 3,829.40.
The FBMEmas shed 37.63 points to 5,766.37, the FBM30 dropped 34.15 points to 5698.80, the FBM2BRD was 61.06 points lower at 4361.81 and the FBMMesdaq Index rose 14.75 points to 3426.94.

Decliners outpaced advancers by 308 to 199 while 223 counters were unchanged, 595 still untraded and 38 others suspended.

Trading volume was slightly higher at 533.268 million shares worth RM720.461 million compared with 509.263 million shares worth RM666.736 million on Tuesday.

Leading the actives list, KNM Group rose 1.5 sen to 65.5 sen and UEM Land perked five sen to 62.5 sen while Lion Industries edged down three sen to 66.5 sen, Kinsteel lost 2.5 sen to 45 sen and MRCB declined two sen to 70 sen.

Of the heavyweights, Maybank went down by 20 sen to close at RM5.10 while Telekom Malaysia was unchanged at RM2.80 and Tenaga Nasional was up five sen to RM6.25.

The Kuala Lumpur Composite Index (KLCI) futures contracts on Bursa Malaysia Derivatives turned lower as investors took profits from the earlier gains in tandem with the weaker cash market, dealers said.

The contract month for November 2008 fell 5.0 points to settle at 868.0 while December 2008 and March 2009 declined 3.0 points each to 863.5 and 838.5, respectively.

The KLCI futures for June 2009 slipped 3.5 points to 818.0.

Overall volume was moderate with 6,553 lots transacted compared with 6,431 lots on Tuesday while open interests declined to 23,826 contracts from 24,087 contracts previously. - Bernama