KUALA LUMPUR: Bursa Malaysia gave up earlier gains to end in the negative territory on Wednesday, in line with the weak sentiment in regional markets following negative cues from Wall Street overnight.
At 5 pm, the benchmark FTSE Bursa Malaysia KLCI (FBM KLCI) stood at 1,466.88, down 4.67 points or 0.32 per cent, from Tuesday's closing of 1,471.55.
The market bellwether opened 0.09 of-a-point easier at 1,471.46 and moved in a narrow range at between 1,466.46 and 1,477.86 throughout the day.
Market breadth was also negative with losers beating gainers 501 to 401, while 369 counters were unchanged, 894 untraded, and 10 others suspended.
Turnover fell to 3.35 billion units worth RM2.25 billion from Tuesday's 4.91 billion units worth RM2.55 billion.
Rakuten Trade Sdn Bhd vice-president of equity research Thong Pak Leng said, despite the lacklustre trading environment over the last few days, the online broker reckoned that bargain hunting may emerge anytime soon given the cheap valuations of local equities.
"Hence, we anticipate the FBM KLCI to move higher within the range of 1,460-1,480 for the remainder of the week,” he told Bernama.
Region-wise, Japan’s Nikkei 225 Index went down 0.72 per cent to 27,686.40, Singapore’s Straits Times Index eased 0.59 per cent to 3,233.32, Hong Kong’s Hang Seng Index declined 3.22 per cent to 18,814.82, China's SSE Composite Index dipped 0.40 per cent to 3,199.62, while Indonesia's Jakarta Composite Index slipped 1.07 per cent to 6,818.75.
Among Bursa Malaysia heavyweights, Maybank rose four sen to RM8.65, CIMB advanced nine sen to RM5.66, IHH Healthcare jumped eight sen to RM5.90, Public gave up three sen to RM4.42, Petronas Chemicals eased one sen to RM8.55, and TNB slid 11 sen to RM9.07.
Of the actives, AHB climbed six sen to 18.5 sen, Solution Group
gained 2.5 sen to 34.5 sen, Borneo Oil and Dataprep were flat at two sen and 31 sen, respectively, and Advance Synergy shed one sen to 17.5 sen.
On the index board, the FBM Emas Index decreased 39.34 points to 10,543.66, the FBMT 100 Index shrank 30.42 points to 10,245.52, the FBM Emas Shariah Index trimmed 80.62 points to 10,687.06, the FBM 70 declined 29.45 points to 12,901.32, and the FBM ACE inched down 0.78 of-a-point to 5,498.71.
Sector-wise, the Financial Services Index fell 44.14 points to 16,483.56, the Industrial Products and Services Index eased 1.40 points to 181.37, the Plantation Index put on 1.28 points to 6,726.31, while the Energy Index decreased 17.43 points to 788.39.
The Main Market volume declined to 2.10 billion shares worth RM1.83 billion from Tuesday's 3.08 billion shares worth RM1.93 billion.
Warrants turnover went up to 331.56 million units valued at RM71.61 million from 317.95 million units valued at RM62.93 million yesterday.
The ACE Market volume dwindled to 918.33 million shares worth RM343.59 million from 1.51 billion shares worth RM553.75 million previously.
Consumer products and services counters accounted for 451.30 million shares traded on the Main Market, industrial products and services (694.22 billion); construction (71.23 million); technology (304.68 million); SPAC (nil), financial services (100.38 million); property (125.27 million); plantation (20.74 million); REITs (6.93 million), closed/fund (2,000); energy (142.94 million); healthcare (82.85 million); telecommunications and media (35.82 million); transportation and logistics (39.77 million); and utilities (19.58 million). - Bernama
