KUALA LUMPUR: The FBM KLCI edged lower as trading commenced on Thursday, as investors continued to drag their feet amid the lack of buying enthusiasm for local equities.
Blue chips on Bursa Malaysia have been drifting sideways since the closing week of December 2025 with the absence of domestic catalysts coupled with ongoing geopolitical uncertainty weighing on sentiment.
"Persistent bearish momentum, coupled with subdued buying interest, is likely to keep sentiment under pressure in the near term," said TA Securities in its latest note.
Rakuten Trade said in its report it remains optimistic over local buying support for the benchmark index. However, it said trading was focused on blue chips as the bulk of the retail segment remained sidelined.
"Nonetheless, we are still hopeful that foreign funds will turn net buyers anytime soon after a net foreign outflow of more than RM22bil last year," it added.
At 9am, the FBM KLCI was down 2.61 points to 1,674.22.
According to Malacca Securities' note, the local bourse was expected to mirror the selling pressure coming from the decline on Wall Street, although it added that the FBM KLCI's fundamentals remained intact, underpinned by favourable interest rates that should benefit the banking sector.
On the FBM KLCI, profit-taking on Nestle accelerated, losing RM1.70 to RM120.30. PETRONAS Gas shed 24 sen to RM18.14 while Tenaga Nasional slid 12 sen to RM13.58.
Among actives, MMAG was flat at 7.5 sen, SNS Network lost 2.5 sen to 62 sen and Capital A bounced up one sen to 41.5 sen.
