KUALA LUMPUR: Bursa Malaysia closed lower today, weighed on by losses in RHB Capital, MISC and Hong Leong Bank, dealers said.
At 12.30pm, the benchmark FTSE Bursa Malaysia KLCI (FBM KLCI) ended at 1,807.87, down 2.22 points after hovering between 1,806.17 and 1,815.95.
RHB Capital lost 23 sen to RM7.93 and MISC and Hong Leong Bank shed 14 sen each to RM7.55 and RM14.20 respectively.
A dealer said trading was thin as the market was shortened to half-day trading in conjunction with the Chinese New Year celebration.
He added that traders trimmed positions ahead of the long holiday but kept position in some of the heavyweights.
The dealer said traders also remained cautious over the weak sentiment fuelled by the ongoing Greek debt saga and despite rising crude oil prices providing some comfort, especially to oil and gas counters.
He said Brent crude, the global crude oil benchmark, rose to a 2015 high of US$63 a barrel on short covering, but fundamentally, global inventory data is still showing an oversupply of up to two million barrels per day.
On the scoreboard, the FBM Emas Index was 9.74 points lower at 12,452.5, the FBM 70 slid 27.55 points to 13,418.45, the FBM Emas Syariah Index eased 1.93 points to 12,950.96 and the FBMT100 Index decreased 17.08 points to 12,126.62.
The FBM Ace jumped 27.06 points to 6,608.78.
On a sectoral basis, the Finance Index shed 87.15 points to 15,910.77, the Plantation Index declined 27.33 points to 8,084.7 and the Industrial Index declined 28.7 points to 3,252.15.
Losers led gainers 381 to 276, while 284 counters were unchanged, 830 untraded and 20 others suspended.
Total turnover contracted to 897.03 million units worth RM887.37 million from 1.66 billion units valued at RM1.49 billion on Tuesday.
The local bourse will be closed through Friday for the festive celebration.
Among actives, Wintoni added two sen to 16 sen, Nexgram earned 1.5 sen to nine sen, Eti Tech gained one sen to 7.5 sen and Perisai Petroleum perked 3.5 sen to 68.5 sen.
AHB slipped half a sen to 20 sen.
Of the heavyweights, Maybank and TNB added two sen each to RM9.22 and RM14.16, Public Bank gained eight sen to RM18.30 and Axiata chalked up seven sen for RM7.10.
Sime Darby lost three sen to RM9.47.
Main Market volume narrowed to 483.36 million shares valued at RM791.99 from 1.66 billion shares valued at RM1.49 billion on Tuesday.
Turnover on the ACE Market contracted to 365.91 million shares worth RM86.85 million from 701.39 million shares worth RM141.68 million.
Warrants decreased to 45.15 million units worth RM7.9 million from 75.01 million units worth RM12.14 million previously.
