Malaysian share prices closed 0.1 percent lower on Monday, with the market quiet in the absence of fresh leads, dealers said. They said Friday's decline on Wall Street also weighed on sentiment with investors reluctant to take a heavy position ahead of a market holiday Tuesday. The Kuala Lumpur Composite Index was down 0.96 points at 916.27 and volume was 520.5 million shares, worth some 1.01 billion ringgit (266 million dollars). Losers led gainers 478 to 261.

"The market is listless today...and blue chips are not really in active trade. The market is waiting for fresh impetus for it to move upwards," said a local brokerage dealer. He said that a possible trigger for the market would be if the recent chaos in the Middle East turned into a bigger geo-political problem with an escalation of violence. "On the other hand, if the transition of power in Iraq is smooth, the calming effect on the market could well trigger a rally for the benchmark index," he added, referring to the elections in that country over the weekend.

Tenaga Nasional and Malayan Banking were both flat at 10.70 ringgit and 12.30 ringgit, respectively. Telekom Malaysia was down 0.10 ringgit at 11.00.

Fotronics Corp was up 0.15 ringgit at 1.15 against an initial public offering price of 1.00 ringgit, on its debut on the Mesdaq market.

Independent power producer Malakoff was up 0.05 ringgit to 7.50 after falling earlier due to its results for the first quarter to November, which came in below market expectations.

Copyright Agence France-Presse, 2005