KUALA LUMPUR, May 14 (Bernama) -- Bursa Malaysia closed slightly lower today, dragged down by banking counters as investors took profit from recent gains amid cautious regional sentiment ahead of clearer indications from talks between United States President Donald Trump and Chinese President Xi Jinping. At 5 pm, the benchmark FTSE Bursa Malaysia KLCI (FBM KLCI) eased by 0.73 of a point to 1,745.58 from Wednesday's close of 1,746.31. The benchmark index, which opened 2.79 points higher at 1,749.10, moved between 1,740.35 and 1,750.63 during today’s session. Market breadth was negative, with losers edging gainers 599 to 558. A total of 612 counters were unchanged, 958 untraded, and 27 suspended. Turnover decreased to 3.91 billion units worth RM3.22 billion compared with 4.14 billion units worth RM3.44 billion on Wednesday.
KUALA LUMPUR (Nov 30): The FBM KLCI fell 2.52 points or 0.1% after a sharp drop in the last few minutes of trade, weighed down by Genting Bhd, Petronas Gas Bhd and Public Bank Bhd share losses.
At 5pm, the KLCI closed at 1,717.86 points. Genting declined 13 sen to RM8.80, Petronas Gas dropped 28 sen to RM15.88 while Public Bank fell 36 sen to RM19.90.
Public Bank and Petronas Gas were Bursa Malaysia's fifth and ninth largest decliners respectively.
Across Bursa Malaysia, 2.47 billion shares worth RM6.03 billion were traded. Decliners outpaced gainers at 461 to 340 respectively. Yesterday, the bourse registered a volume of 1.96 billion shares valued at RM2.8 billion.
Today, analysts said banking stocks were in the spotlight. “There may be some added concern over the (financial) results of banks,” said Kenny Yee, head of research at Rakuten Trade Sdn Bhd.
Yee said this as Malaysia's corporate financial reporting season for the July-to-September quarter concludes today. Tomorrow (Dec 1), Malaysian markets will be closed for a public holiday in conjunction with Prophet Muhammad's birthday.
Source: The Edge

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