Cautious sentiment weighs on Bursa Malaysia

KUALA LUMPUR: Bursa Malaysia ended lower on Thursday amidst the prevailing cautious sentiment in the market, said an analyst.

At 5 pm, the FTSE Bursa Malaysia KLCI (FBM KLCI) slipped 2.16 points or 0.15 per cent to end the day at 1,418.69 from Wednesday's close of 1,420.85.

The benchmark index opened 0.19 of-a-point higher at 1,421.04 and moved between 1,418.69 and 1,425.85 throughout the day.

The overall market breadth was negative as losers outnumbered gainers 430 to 364, while 423 counters were unchanged, 1,007 untraded, and seven others suspended.

Total turnover decreased to 1.94 billion units valued at RM1.45 billion from Wednesday's 2.16 billion units valued at RM1.63 billion.

Rakuten Trade Sdn Bhd vice-president of Equity Research, Thong Pak Leng said Malaysian equities closed lower with selling mainly seen in the energy and industrial products stocks, while buying activities were mainly in the healthcare and plantation counters.

He said the market sentiment would remain cautious over the short term due to the heightened regional market volatility.

"As such, we expect the FBM KLCI to trade within the 1415-1,435 range towards the weekend, with immediate resistance at 1,600 and support at 1,460," he told Bernama.

Among the heavyweights, TNB gained two sen to RM7.96, Petronas Gas was flat at RM16.40, Maybank fell four sen to RM8.58, Public Bank eased three sen to RM4.36, Petronas Chemicals trimmed 31 sen to RM8.34, IHH Healthcare slid five sen to RM6.33 and CIMB eased one sen to RM5.09.

Of the actives, Top Glove advanced seven sen to RM1.01, TA Win edged up half-a-sen 8.5 sen, Widad was flat at 36.5 sen, Seng Fong gave up seven sen to 67.5 sen, Reach Energy edged down half-a-sen to four sen and Hibiscus Petroleum decreased five sen to 87.5 sen.

On the index board, the FBM Emas Index fell 12.42 points to 10,092.13, FBM Emas Shariah Index gained 3.86 points to 10,152.57, FBM 70 shaved off 11.24 points to 12,162.03, FBM ACE decreased 22.72 points to 4,604.0, and the FBMT 100 Index gave up 13.61 points to 9,848.83.

Sector-wise, the Financial Services Index went down 68.51 points to 15,997.25, the Industrial Products and Services Index was 3.68 points easier at 171.8, and the Plantation Index surged 116.68 points to 6,588.47.

The Main Market volume fell to 1.24 billion shares worth RM1.31 billion from Wednesday's 1.42 billion shares worth RM1.47 billion.

Warrants turnover rose to 468.15 million units worth RM77.60 million from 431.29 million units worth RM77.84 million yesterday.

The ACE Market volume dwindled to 240.47 million shares worth RM61.11 million from 304.42 million shares worth RM82.19 million previously.

Consumer products and services counters accounted for 129.06 million shares traded on the Main Market, industrial products and services (415.0 million), construction (25.40 million), technology (123.02 million), SPAC (nil), financial services (53.46 million), property (67.87 million), plantation (31.53 million), REITs (7.08 million), closed/fund (5,000), energy (209.62 million), healthcare (113.09 million), telecommunications and media (33.66 million), transportation and logistics (13.92 million), and utilities (12.38 million).

-- BERNAMA