KUALA LUMPUR: The FBM KLCI closed in the red for the fourth straight session, while regional equities also edged lower.
The 30-stock index closed down 9.30 points, or 0.57%, at 1,632.23, its intraday low, after reaching a high of 1,643.08 earlier in the day.
Losers trounced gainers by 712 to 312, while 514 counters traded unchanged. Traded volume stood at 2.65 billion shares valued at RM2.3bil.
In today's session, the FBM KLCI component stocks were mostly negative, with 21 losers and only four gainers
YTL Power fell 22 sen to RM3.22 and single-handedly took 2.6349 points off the FBM KLCI. YTL Corp lost nine sen to RM2.13, dragging the index lower by 1.4448 points.
On the other hand, IHH Healthcare rose 20 sen to RM7.41, pushing the index higher by 2.5532 points.
Nestle, the top loser on Bursa Malaysia tumbled RM1.90 to RM102.50.
Hong Leong Financial Group lost 30 sen to RM19.08 and Heineken fell 30 sen to RM23.08.
MNRB rose 15 sen to RM2.26, Hengyuan added 13 sen to RM2.73, Cypark gained 10.5 sen to 80.5 sen and Allianz climbed 10 sen to RM20.60.
Meanwhile, the ringgit was quoted at 4.3505, up 0.02% against the US dollar.
Bernama reported that Allianz SE chief economist Ludovic Subran said the ringgit is expected to strengthen by 5% if current US Vice President Kamala Harris is elected President by the end of the year.
The local currency was down 0.18% against the euro at 4.7001. It rose 0.15% against the pound sterling at 5.6382 and fell 0.05% against the Singapore dollar at 3.2968.
Among the key regional markets:
Japan’s Nikkei 225 closed up 0.1% to 38,143.29;
Hong Kong’s Hang Seng Index fell 1.3% to 20,489.62;
China’s CSI 300 Index lost 1.12% to 3,928.83;
Taiwan’s Taiex closed down 0.61% to 23,192.52;
South Korea’s Kospi closed up 0.49% to 2,797.82 and;
Singapore’s Straits Times Index added 0.16% to 3,606.47 points.
