KUALA LUMPUR (June 12): The FBM KLCI ended almost flat as investors took profit from the index’s earlier rise amid lower share trades across Bursa Malaysia.

At 5pm, the KLCI fell 0.39 point to settle at 1,734.37 on losses in stocks like SapuraKencana Petroleum Bhd and Petronas Chemicals Group Bhd.

“The market today is very quiet. The volume is very low. One of the reasons could be that the market wants to see a better, clearer picture on the political factors,” Inter-Pacific Securities Sdn Bhd senior dealer Sam Ng told theedgemarkets.com today.

Earlier, the KLCI rose to an intraday high of 1,740.99 points as Malaysian shares tracked Asian equity gains.

Japan's Nikkei 225 added 0.12% while Hong Kong’s Hang Seng rose 1.39%. Reuters reported that Hong Kong stocks ended a volatile week with a solid gain, as fears of possible spread of a deadly respiratory disease — which two days ago triggered some selling — continued to ease.

Reuters also reported that Asian stocks took the cue from Greek debt talks, which took another confusing turn. The International Monetary Fund decided to leave negotiations in Brussels and fly home because of major differences with Athens.

In Malaysia, Bursa Malaysia saw 1.14 billion shares valued at RM1.19 billion traded. Yesterday, the bourse saw 1.42 billion shares worth RM1.71 billion transacted.

Today, the top gainers included Petronas Dagangan Bhd and Berjaya Auto Bhd. Meanwhile, decliners were led by Nestle (M) Bhd and British American Tobacco (M) Bhd.

Vsolar Group Bhd was the most-actively traded stock.

In currency markets, the ringgit weakened to 3.7610 against the US dollar as Greece's financials concerns generated demand for the US dollar.

Reuters reported that Asian currencies were mostly steady to lower versus the dollar on Friday as uncertainty over the fate of Greece's negotiations with international lenders hurt risk sentiment.