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KL shares end lower, Time bucks trend

KUALA LUMPUR: Malaysian shares ended lower on Wednesday as the market further consolidated after a sharp run-up last week, but telecommunications group Time Engineerin bucked the overall trend.

The benchmark Kuala Lumpur Stock Exchange's Composite Index lost 1.71 percent or 16.24 points to close at 933.38, off a low of 926.48 in late trading.

"There has been quite a bit of profit taking which is not surprising, but it looks like some of the buying came back late in the day, which may point to a positive start tomorrow," a local dealer said. Time shares gained 39 cents to 2.99 ringgit on the day's heaviest volume of 28 milion shares, extending gains made earlier this week after it said it was consolidating all its telecommunications businesses under a newly-named holding company Time dotCom BHD.

"The company does have huge debts, there's no doubt about that, but you can't ignore the fact that its businesses are still sound," a local fund manager said.

Time has debts of around 4.5 billion ringgit which have been referred to the central bank's Corporate Debt Restructuring Committee (CDRC). The company has rejected three bids for its telecommunications assets brokered by the CDRC.-Reuter