KUALA LUMPUR, Nov 27 — Bursa Malaysia finished lower today dampened by selling in selected heavyweights as well as mid- and small-cap stocks, a dealer said.

At 5pm, the barometer index declined 5.77 points to 1,448.15 from Friday’s closing of 1,453.92.

The index opened 0.77 of-a-point weaker at 1,453.15 and moved between 1,448.0 and 1,455.78 throughout the day.

Market breadth was negative, with decliners outpacing gainers 683 to 287, while 415 counters were unchanged, 1,025 untraded and 48 others suspended.

Turnover fell slightly to 3.09 billion units valued at RM2.05 billion from 3.50 billion units valued at RM2.35 billion on Friday.

Rakuten Trade equity research vice-president Thong Pak Leng said the key regional indices also trended downward as investors exercised caution ahead of upcoming inflation data from the United States and Europe later this week.

The 7.8 per cent year-on-year decline in China's industrial profits in October further weakened investor sentiment, fuelling impatience over the potential for more stimulus measures from Beijing, while a series of weak Purchasing Managers' Index in Japan raised concerns about a slowdown in business activity in the country.

On the domestic front, Thong said the valuation of the benchmark index remains attractive at its current level, and he anticipated continued stock accumulation, particularly in blue-chip stocks during market dips.

"However, investor sentiment may be affected by uncertain global economic conditions and increasing market volatility, hence, we expect the FBM KLCI to maintain its consolidation phase for the moment, awaiting the emergence of fresh catalysts.

"We anticipate the index to trend within the range of its support and resistance levels, specifically at 1,445 and 1,465, respectively, for the week,” he told Bernama.

Among the heavyweights, Maybank lost three sen to RM9.06, Public Bank went down one sen to RM4.24, Petronas Chemicals fell 21 sen to RM7.09, and Tenaga Nasional dipped 16 sen to RM9.84, while CIMB was unchanged at RM5.75.

Of the actives, Panda Eco put on 10 sen to 26 sen, Leform went up half-a-sen to 30 sen, Hong Seng and Widad were flat at 2.5 sen and 46.5 sen, respectively, Top Glove slid 2.0 sen to 88 sen, and Sime Darby Property gained 3.0 sen to 66 sen.

On the index board, the FBM Emas Index was 43.27 points lower at 10,725.46, the FBMT 100 Index slid 40.27 points to 10,390.62 and the FBM Emas Shariah Index declined 69.95 points to 10,874.06.

The FBM 70 Index decreased by 50.40 points to 14,281.34 and the FBM ACE Index slipped 98.06 points to 5,107.37.

Sector-wise, the Financial Services Index slipped 42.42 points to 16,341.90, the Energy Index dipped 4.17 points to 830.68, and the Industrial Products and Services Index eased 1.87 points to 172.24, while the Plantation Index increased by 12.10 points to 6,943.445.

The Main Market volume trimmed to 1.82 billion units valued at RM1.71 billion from 2.09 billion units valued at RM2.04 billion on Friday.

Warrants turnover tumbled to 496.10 million units valued at RM63.91 million against 710.88 million units valued at RM87.76 million previously.

The ACE Market volume rose to 776.51 million shares worth RM279.85 million versus 677.28 million shares worth RM223.46 million last Friday.

Consumer products and services counters accounted for 301.49 million shares traded on the Main Market, industrial products and services (408.24 million); construction (119.99 million); technology (257.33 million); SPAC (nil); financial services (47.98 million); property (262.56 million); plantation (31.73 million); REITs (7.07 million), closed/fund (22,900); energy (111.27 million); healthcare (131.80 million); telecommunications and media (27.23 million); transportation and logistics (36.46 million); and utilities (76.01 million). — Bernama