KUALA LUMPUR: The FBM KLCI erased gains made earlier to end at its intraday low following last-minute selling in heavyweights.
The 30-stock index lost 2.16 points, or 0.15%, to finish at 1,418.69, its lowest since May 2020.
Broad market sentiment continued to be weak, with 429 losers outpacing 364 gainers and 424 counters which traded unchanged. Total turnover stood at 1.94 billion units valued at RM1.44bil.
Dealers said overall market sentiment remained tepid. They noted that the local bourse moved in positive territory earlier but profit-taking in index-linked counters emerged in the last minutes and pushed the market lower.
Top losers on Bursa Malaysia included Carlsberg, which lost 34 sen to RM21.82, Petronas Chemicals shed 31 sen to RM8.34, Press Metal
fell 24 sen to RM4.27 and ViTrox eased 23 sen to RM6.74.
Nestle was the top gainer, jumping 90 sen to RM133, followed by Kuala Lumpur Kepong, which climbed 66 sen to RM20.68 and PPB, which rose 24 sen to RM15.52.
Maybank fell four sen to RM8.58, Public Bank declined three sen to RM4.36, CIMB eased one sen to RM5.09, RHB Bank shed seven sen to RM5.65 and Hong Leong Bank lost 20 sen to RM20.18.
Meanwhile, Brent crude fell 18 cents to US$100.51 a barrel while US West Texas Intermediate crude was at US$98.34 per barrel, down 19 cents.
On the external front, MSCI’s Asia ex-Japan stock index rose 5.52%.
The Nikkei share average rose 1.47% to close at 26,490.53 while South Korea’s Kospi advanced 1.84% to 2,334.27.
Hong Kong’s Hang Seng Index rose 0.26% to close at 21,643.58.
China’s CSI300 gained 0.4%, while the Shanghai Composite Index rose 0.3%.
