KUALA LUMPUR The FBM KLCI made a cautious start on Thursday after a four-day rally that tacked on about 2.4% to the market benchmark.
The index hovered near multi-year highs, slipping back 0.56 points to 1,710.35 as investors resisted the urge to cash in on the recent gains.
Overnight, a potential trading catalysts dissipated after the US Supreme Court did not issue a ruling on the legality of President Donald Trump's global tariffs. The court did not announce when it will next issue rulings.
Meanwhile, Rakuten Trade said in a note that foreign buying remained evident on the local market, and expects it to persist. Foreign funds net purchased RM172mil of local equities in the previous session, according to Bursa Malaysia's statistics.
Local institutions net sold RM138mil of Malaysia equities while local retailers were also net sellers of RM34mil in domestic stock.
Malacca Securities said in its review the negative overnight performance in the US could trigger some profit-taking on the local bourse, especially given its recent extended rally.
However, it said support for the index was located above the 1,700 level.
On the FBM KLCI, most stocks were negative including Nestle, down RM1.90 to RM116.60, PETRONAS Dagangan sliding 44 sne ot RM20.56 and SD Guthrie shedding seven sen to RM5.63.
There was also profit-taking among the heavyweight banks, led by Maybank falling four sen to RM11, CIMB shedding four sen to RM8.31, Hong Leong Bank down eight sen to RM23.40 and RHB sliding two sen to RM8.11.
Among the market's most active stocks, Capital A slipped 0.5 sen to 54 sen following the previous day's rally. Focus Dynamics rose 0.5 sen to one sen and TWL was unchanged at 2.5 sen.
