Malaysian shares ended lower on Thursday, snapping a five-day winning streak, as investors booked profit after the recent run-up while mobile phone firm DiGi.Com fared worse than the broader market after a stake sale.
The local market's fall also reflected regional weakness as investors were spooked by a weak sales outlook from US Internet media firm Yahoo Inc.
The benchmark Kuala Lumpur Composite Index finished 39 percent down at 851.77 points.
The key index had gained 4.3 percent over the last five days until Wednesday, fuelled by a buying frenzy in banking stocks such as Maybank on perceptions that lenders would benefit from a growing economy.
Overall volume was a moderate 353 million shares worth 585 million ringgit ($154 million), as decliners beat gainers three to one.
Shares of DiGi.Com fell 2.8 percent to 4.84 ringgit after key shareholder Vincent Tan cut his stake in the country's smallest cellular operator, by more than a third to 11.5 percent.
An ECM Libra Bhd executive told Reuters that the firm helped to sell 50 million or 6.7 percent of DiGi via a placement exercise at 4.76 ringgit a share.
Shares of builders like Gamuda ended unchanged at 5.80 ringgit despite news that the government plans to spend more than $2 billion on infrastructure projects.
Prime Minister Abdullah Ahmad Badawi said late on Wednesday the government would spend 8.5 billion ringgit for infrastructure development, schools, housing and flood mitigation projects to boost economic growth.
MTD Capital fell 0.7 percent to 3.08 ringgit. The government said MTD would only get 30 percent of a 1.5 billion ringgit contract to build a highway on the east coast of Peninsular Malaysia.