BURSA Malaysia ended mixed today on the back of a lacklustre market, in line with the weakness in most key regional markets.

The weak regional sentiment followed cues from the downbeat Wall Street performance overnight amid renewed fears of a bigger interest-rate hike by the US Federal Reserve in its monetary policy meeting next week.

At 5pm, the benchmark FTSE Bursa Malaysia KLCI (FBM KLCI) was almost flat at 1,471.55, down by 0.01 of-a-point from yesterday’s closing of 1,471.56, after opening 2.57 points easier at 1,468.99.

The index moved in a narrow range at between 1,467.13 and 1,473.52 throughout the day.

Market breadth was slightly positive with gainers leading losers 504 to 479, while 371 counters were unchanged, 887 untraded, and nine others suspended.

Turnover surged to 4.91 billion units worth RM2.55 billion from 3.99 billion units worth RM2.07 billion on Monday. 

Rakuten Trade Sdn Bhd equity research VP Thong Pak Leng said buying activities might emerge soon as the recent sell-down seemed unjustified. 

“We believe the overall outlook in the mid-term is still positive due to attractive valuations, stronger corporate earnings, and improving economic conditions.

“As such, we see the FBM KLCI to trend within the 1,470-1,500 band for the remainder of the week. On a technical point of view, the immediate resistance is unchanged at 1,500 while support is at 1,470,” he told Bernama.

Region-wise, Japan’s Nikkei 225 Index went up 0.24% to 27,885.87, Singapore’s Straits Times Index eased 0.56% to 3,249.11, Hong Kong’s Hang Seng Index eased 0.4% to 19,441.18, while Indonesia’s Jakarta Composite Index slipped 1.36% to 6,892.57.

Among Bursa Malaysia heavyweights, Malayan Banking Bhd increased three sen to RM8.61, Public Bank Bhd added one sen to RM4.45, Petronas Chemicals Group Bhd advanced six sen to RM8.56, Tenaga Nasional Bhd soared 11 sen to RM9.18, Hong Leong Bank Bhd was flat at RM20.50, CIMB Group Holdings Bhd shed seven sen to RM5.57, and IHH Healthcare Bhd declined three sen to RM5.82. 

Of the actives, Dataprep Holdings Bhd perked up 3.5 sen to 31 sen, Euro Holdings Bhd improved by three sen to 14.5 sen, AT Systematization Bhd was up one sen to two sen, PUC Founder (MSC) Bhd put on half-a-sen to 3.5 sen, while Metronic Global Bhd and MQ Technology Bhd inched down half-a-sen each to two sen and 6.5 sen respectively. 

On the index board, the FBM Emas Index decreased 3.69 points to 10,583, the FBM T100 Index eased 3.19 points to 10,275.94, the FBM Emas Shariah Index rose 0.23 of-a-point to 10,767.68, the FBM 70 declined 16.40 points to 12,930.77, and the FBM ACE garnered 76.32 points to 5,499.49. 

Sector-wise, the Financial Services Index dipped 6.43 points to 16,439.42, the Industrial Products and Services Index climbed 1.21 points to 182.77, the Plantation Index gave up 28.03 points to 6,725.03, while the Energy Index trimmed 8.94 points to 805.82.

The Main Market volume expanded to 3.08 billion shares worth RM1.93 billion from Monday’s 2.43 billion shares worth RM1.68 billion. 

Warrants turnover declined to 317.95 million units valued at RM62.93 million from 388.70 million units valued at RM81.06 million yesterday. 

The ACE Market volume swelled to 1.51 billion shares worth RM553.75 million from 1.17 billion shares worth RM306.25 million previously. 

Consumer products and services counters accounted for 570.5 million shares traded on the Main Market, industrial products and services (1.17 billion); construction (113.78 million); technology (524.56 million); SPAC (nil), financial services (99.8 million); property (132.81 million); plantation (22.38 million); REITs (4.43 million), closed/fund (37,000); energy (191.45 million); healthcare (86.93 million); telecommunications and media (46.32 million); transportation and logistics (84.27 million); and utilities (39.89 million). — Bernama / graphic TMR