KUALA LUMPUR: The FBM KLCI ended Friday nearly flat after spending most of the trading day in negative territory.
The domestic market took its cue from US markets, which have been retreating ahead of the US Federal Open Market Committee decision next week, which is expected to signal the start of the US rate hike cycle.
At 5pm, the FBM KLCI was down 0.69 points to 1,527.06. The market breadth was negative with 575 decliners compared to 334 gainers.
Petronas Chemicals led the blue chips lower with a six sen decline to RM8.89. Petronas Gas however rose 12 sen to RM16.94 on the back of the elevated crude oil prices.
Bank stocks were mostly firm although Hong Leong Bank declined 14 sen to RM19.20.
As investors continue to reposition their portfolios in anticipation of the US Fed's interest rate increases, technology counters extended their fall. MPI dropped RM2 to RM38.02, KESM shed 16 sen to RM10.68 and Vitrox slid 16 sen to RM7.99.
Meanwhile top actives include DNeX up two sen to 98.5 sen, SMTrack down three sen to 19 sen and G3 unchanged at eight sen.
In regional markets, Japan's Nikkei slid 0.9%, South Korea's Kospi dropped 1%, China benchmark index fell 0.9% and Hong Kong's Hang Seng was unchanged.
Australia's ASX200 slumped 2.3% as a rout in mining giant Rio Tinto triggered a sell-off in mining and gold companies, while a surge in the number of Omicron Covid-19 cases weighed on sentiment.
The domestic market took its cue from US markets, which have been retreating ahead of the US Federal Open Market Committee decision next week, which is expected to signal the start of the US rate hike cycle.
At 5pm, the FBM KLCI was down 0.69 points to 1,527.06. The market breadth was negative with 575 decliners compared to 334 gainers.
Petronas Chemicals led the blue chips lower with a six sen decline to RM8.89. Petronas Gas however rose 12 sen to RM16.94 on the back of the elevated crude oil prices.
Bank stocks were mostly firm although Hong Leong Bank declined 14 sen to RM19.20.
As investors continue to reposition their portfolios in anticipation of the US Fed's interest rate increases, technology counters extended their fall. MPI dropped RM2 to RM38.02, KESM shed 16 sen to RM10.68 and Vitrox slid 16 sen to RM7.99.
Meanwhile top actives include DNeX up two sen to 98.5 sen, SMTrack down three sen to 19 sen and G3 unchanged at eight sen.
In regional markets, Japan's Nikkei slid 0.9%, South Korea's Kospi dropped 1%, China benchmark index fell 0.9% and Hong Kong's Hang Seng was unchanged.
Australia's ASX200 slumped 2.3% as a rout in mining giant Rio Tinto triggered a sell-off in mining and gold companies, while a surge in the number of Omicron Covid-19 cases weighed on sentiment.
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