15/12/2011 (Bernama) - Share prices on Bursa Malaysia were lower at close on Wednesday led by plantation counters amid weak regional equities, dealers said.

At 5pm, the benchmark FTSE Bursa Malaysia KLCI (FBM KLCI) declined 2.27 points or 0.15 per cent to 1,463.12.

It had opened at 1,461.98, down 3.41 points from yesterday's closing, and hovered between the 1,459.45 and 1,466.45 levels throughout the day.

The overall market sentiment was bearish with losers outpacing gainers by 412 to 309 while 289 counters were unchanged and 474 others untraded.

Turnover was lower at 1.5 billion shares worth RM1.08 billion from 1.83 billion shares valued at RM1.38 billion yesterday.

HwangDBS Vickers said the market was disappointed with US policymakers not having mentioned fresh measures to stimulate the American economy at the Federal Open Market Committee meeting last night.

In reaction, major stock indices on Wall Street lost between 0.6 per cent and 1.3 per cent at the closing bell, the research house added.

Maybank Investment Bank Bhd's head of retail research Lee Cheng Hooi said Bursa Malaysia moved in line with regional markets on a lack of market-moving factors.

Plantation counters came under selling pressure as the crude palm oil price fell below RM3,200 due to prolonged uncertainties in Europe.

"The market is very sluggish as most investors are reluctant to actively trade ahead of the year-end holidays," he told Bernama.

The Finance Index rose 52.06 points to 13,059.67, the Plantation Index gained 88.18 points to 7,897.2 and the Industrial Index decreased 5.63 points to 2,646.81.

The FBM Emas Index decreased 13.52 points to 10,025.95, the FBM Mid 70 Index declined 6.75 points to 10,996.31 and the FBM Ace Index rose 10.59 points to 4,151.86.

Among active counters, Takaso gained one sen to 20.5 sen, Sanichi lost two sen to 21 sen and Envair added 3.5 sen to 35.5 sen.

For heavyweights, Maybank gained six sen to RM8.25 and CIMB rose one sen to RM6.86.

Sime Darby was flat at RM8.94 on news that its industrial unit had bought a portion of the former Bucyrus distribution business worth RM1.1 billion.

Volume on the Main Market rose to 782 million shares worth RM959.6 million from the 695.66 million shares valued at RM1.2 billion on Tuesday.

Turnover on the ACE market increased to 437.6 million shares worth RM92.52 million from 436.48 million shares valued at RM77 million yesterday.

Warrants fell to 275.11 million units worth RM32.38 million from 696.6 million units valued at RM109.24 million previously.

Consumer products accounted for 203.71 million shares traded on the Main Market, industrial products 115.7 million, construction 31.81 million, trade and services 224.63 million, technology 13.85 million, infrastructure 19.66 million, finance 76.37 million, hotels 748,100, properties 64.01 million, plantation 14.25 million, mining 8,000, REITs 7.04 million and closed/fund 107,000.