KUALA LUMPUR (Feb 22): The FBM KLCI closed 9.26 points or 0.54% lower today on profit taking after four consecutive days of gains and following overnight US share losses on Thursday.

At 5pm today, the KLCI closed at 1,721.42 after falling to its intraday low of 1,716.17. Malacca Securities Sdn Bhd senior analyst Kenneth Leong told theedgemarkets.com that the weakness in the KLCI mainly stemmed from the overnight pullback in US shares and profit taking in selected KLCI stocks.

“This (KLCI) pullback is considered healthy especially after the KLCI gained close to 40 points over the past week,” said Leong.

Among the 30 KLCI constituents today, Top Glove Corp Bhd was the top decliner in percentage terms, followed by Maxis Bhd. Top Glove closed 27 sen or 5.29% down at RM4.83 while Maxis fell 16 sen or 2.82% to RM5.51.

On Monday, the KLCI ended up at 1,692.74 followed by daily gains, which took the index to 1,730.68 yesterday.

Overnight on Thursday in the US, Reuters reported that the Dow Jones Industrial Average fell 103.81 points, or 0.4 percent, to 25,850.63, the S&P 500 lost 9.82 points, or 0.35 percent, to 2,774.88 and the Nasdaq Composite dropped 29.36 points, or 0.39 percent, to 7,459.71. It was reported that weak economic reports pressured US stocks on Thursday after the market's recent run of gains, and a drop in healthcare shares added to the bearish momentum.

Mainland China shares, however closed substantially higher today. It was reported that Mainland Chinese stocks climbed on Friday to post their best weekly gains in years, led by gains in brokerage firms, amid hopes of a Sino-US trade deal before the March 1 deadline, after which the United States plans to hike tariffs on Chinese goods.

The blue-chip CSI300 index rose 2.3 percent, to 3,520.12 points, its highest closing level since July 26, 2018, while the Shanghai Composite Index ended up 1.9 percent at 2,804.23 points, its highest close since September 2018.