Malaysian share prices closed 0.17 percent lower in listless trade Friday amid an absence of fresh leads, dealers said. They added that there was some light bargain-hunting in selected blue chips, but gains were capped due to a general lack of interest.
Dealers also said that most investors were reluctant to take heavy positions ahead of the weekend.
The Kuala Lumpur Composite Index was down 1.53 points to 925.59.
Losers outnumbered gainers 335 to 286, with 374 stocks unchanged and 329 untraded. Volume was 300.53 million shares, worth 452.97 million ringgit (120 million dollars).
"The lack of fresh leads to spur buying, and the weekend coming up, meant there was hardly any activity in the market," a local brokerage dealer said.
For next week, he foresees another week of rangebound trading, with a resistance level of 930 while support is at the 916 points level.
Among blue chips, Telekom Malaysia and Maybank were flat at 10.10 ringgit and 11.50 respectively, while Tenaga Nasional lost 0.10 to 10.70.
Malaysia's stockbroking firms with universal broker status were higher after Bank Negara Malaysia and the Securities Commission said universal brokers can become investment banks if they merge with a discount house, dealers said.
OSK Holdings was up 0.02 at 1.02, Kenanga gained 0.015 to 0.55, Avenue Capital climbed 0.015 to 0.66, while Hwang-DBS turned flat at 1.28.
MMC Corp was flat at 2.18 after a consortium - comprising of 70 percent-owned subsidiary Tepat Teknik Sdn Bhd, Mitsubishi Corp and Mitsubishi Heavy Industries Ltd - was awarded a 360 million ringgit contract to build a 100-megawatt gas-fired power plant in Sabah.

Copyright Agence France-Presse, 2005

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