KUALA LUMPUR: Bursa Malaysia ended lower on Tuesday on lack of buying interest, with the key index declining by 0.26 per cent.

       At 5 pm, the benchmark FTSE Bursa Malaysia KLCI (FBM KLCI) fell 3.99 points to finish at 1,522.88. The key index moved between 1,521.51 and 1,531.73 throughout the day.

       The index opened 0.38 of-a-point better at 1,527.25 from 1,526.87 at Monday's close.

       On the broader market, decliners led gainers 641 to 330, while 462 counters were unchanged, 903 untraded and 18 others suspended.

       Turnover increased to 2.70 billion shares worth RM2.35 billion from Monday’s 2.45 billion shares worth RM1.99 billion.

       Rakuten Trade Sdn Bhd vice-president of equity research Thong Pak Leng said the FBM KLCI remained in its consolidation mode despite a few attempts to break out of the 1,530 mark.

       "Nonetheless, we reckon the index to see a slight upside from some buying due to prevailing low valuations and expect it to hover within the 1,525-1,535 range for the rest of the week,” he told Bernama.

       Thong added that the recent spike in global COVID-19 cases might heightened the market volatility regionally.

       Among the heavyweights, Maybank and Petronas Chemicals added one sen each to RM8.16 and RM8.31, IHH Healthcare advanced eight sen to RM6.70, CIMB gained three sen to RM5.19, Public Bank and Tenaga Nasional were flat at RM4.07 and RM9.50 respectively, while Press Metal and Hong Leong Bank both shed four sen to RM5.70 and RM18.30.

       Of the actives, My E.G. increased four sen to RM1.09, Dagang Nexchange rose 1.5 sen to 86.5 sen, Tanco was flat at 27 sen, ATA IMS lost 31 sen to RM1.20, NWP decreased 2.5 sen to 33 sen and Uzma slipped five sen to 52.5 sen.

       On the index board, the FBMT 100 Index reduced 27.43 points to 10,869.05, the FBM Emas Index discounted 31.85 points to 11,213.41, the FBM Emas Shariah Index weakened 54.62 points to 12,157.15, the FBM ACE trimmed 77.26 points to 6,716.31, and the FBM 70 went down 33.07 points to 14,718.17.

       Sector-wise, the Financial Services Index was 2.70 points higher at 15,284.69, the Industrial Products and Services Index inched down 0.99 of-a-point to 199.52, and the Plantation Index contracted 110.40 points to 6,575.0.

       The Main Market volume went up to 1.85 billion shares worth RM2.05 billion from 1.67 billion shares worth RM1.74 billion on Monday.

       Warrants turnover was higher at 316.03 million units worth RM63.74 million from 243.42 million units worth RM33.50 million yesterday.

       The volume on the ACE Market eased to 526.74 million shares valued at RM236.77 million from Monday’s 536.41 million shares valued at RM219.11 million.

       Consumer products and services counters accounted for 258.29 million shares traded on the Main Market, industrial products and services (538.67 million), construction (78.73 million), technology (326.44 million), SPAC (nil), financial services (55.51 million), property (138.61 million), plantation (33.20 million), REITs (25.16 million), closed/fund (301,000), energy (184.21 million), healthcare (82.49 million), telecommunications and media (60.23 million), transportation and logistics (56.70 million), and utilities (15.19 million). - Bernama