KUALA LUMPUR: The local benchmark index retraced losses seen in the morning session to end slightly lower at 1,759.99 points.At market close, 2.07 billion shares exchanged hands on Bursa Malaysia with a value of RM1.6bil. There were 445 decliners to 375 advancers and 430 counters unchanged.Asian markets saw quiet trading on Tuesday but China's markets firmed up on financial and real estate firms.At the close, the Shanghai Composite index was up 25.43 points or 0.78% at 3,305.89. while the blue-chip CSI300 index was up 12.08 points or 0.31% to 4,053.62 points.South Korea's Kospi, however, dropped to a three-month low as domestic media reports on sales of Apple's iPhone X sales saw selling in major IT stocks like Samsung Electronics and SK Hynix. The index fell 13.20 points or 0.54% to 2.427.34 points.Eselwhere Taiwan's Taiex slipped 100.58 points or nearly 1% to 10,421.91 points and Singapore's Straits Times shaved off 4.74 points or 0.14% at 3,380.97 points.Meanwhile, Hong Kong's markets were closed on Tuesday for a notional holiday.Back home, leading laggards on the KLCI included Telekom Malaysia, which fell 25 sen to RM6.25. Allianz rose 26 sen to RM13.86 and F&N put on 32 sen to RM26.70.In commodities, oil prices retreated from 2015 highs on low year-end trading volumes.US light crude slipped 14 cents to US$58.33 a barrel while Brent dropped 24 cents to US$65.04 a barrel.The ringgit weakened against a basket of currencies. It dipped 0.13% against the greenback to 4.0850, 0.08% against the pound sterling at 5.4620 and 0.11% against the Singapore dollar at 3.0380.

Source: The Star December 26, 2017 09:33 UTC