Down on profit-taking

SHARE prices Bursa Malaysia closed on easier note on profit-taking, dealers said.

At the close, the FTSE Bursa Malaysia KLCI (FBM KLCI) was 4.4 points lower at 1,661.95 after opening 0.08 point higher at 1,666.35.

The benchmark index hovered between 1,660.04 and 1,667.23 throughout the trading session.

Mercury Securities head of research, Edmund Tham, said the performance was in sync with several regional peers as positive sentiments were hampered by weak export data from Japan.

Tham said risk appetite was also dampened by Wall Street’s weak performance last Friday on poor corporate earnings.

British American Tobacco, the stock in the limelight, fell 14 sen to RM63.86 after the announcement of a 20sen increase in the prices of its cigarette packs effective yesterday.

Tham said Canada’s surprise decision to block Petronas’ US$5.2bil bid for gas producer Progress Energy Resources may affect Canadian stock market sentiment.

“The decision puts a big question mark on Canada’s foreign direct investment policy,” he said.

Back home, losers led gainers by 407 to 259, with 336 counters unchanged and 642 were untraded.

Volume declined to 1.28 billion shares worth RM1.46bil from 1.379 billion shares valued at RM2.186bil last Friday. – Bernama