Malaysian share prices closed 0.60 percent lower in sluggish trade on Thursday on selling of selected blue chips, dealers said. Trading was also rangebound in the absence of fresh leads, and the key index just managed to close above the psychologically-important 900-mark despite trading below it for some time, they said.
The Kuala Lumpur Composite Index shed 5.46 points to 901.09 and volume traded was 293.77 million shares, worth 765.42 million ringgit (202.60 million dollars) while losers outnumbered gainers 440 to 202. The ringgit was traded at 3.7780 to the US dollar and 4.4461 to the euro.
"Institutional foreign selling of selected blue chips has dealt a heavy blow to the market today. The market was desperate for positive leads but there was none, only concerns of potential interest rate hike," a local brokerage dealer said.
Among blue chips, Tenaga Nasional was down 0.35 ringgit at 9.50, Malayan Banking lost 0.20 to 10.90, while Telekom Malaysia was up 0.10 at 9.55.
Southern Bank was down 0.04 at 3.90 on reports Singapore's investment arm Temasek had sold 40 million shares, dealers said.
PSC Industries rebounded following a report the ship builder is to deliver two offshore patrol vessels to the defence ministry by year's end, dealers said. PSC was up 0.10 at 0.815.