KUALA LUMPUR: Bursa Malaysia erased early gains to end lower yesterday as profit-taking emerged following recent gains.
At 5pm, the FBM KLCI eased 5.44 points, or 0.31%, to 1,742.82 from Tuesday’s close of 1,748.26. The market bellwether opened 1.84 points lower at 1,746.42, and subsequently hit an intraday high of 1,751.22 in early trade before slipping to its day’s low of 1,740.49 during the mid-afternoon session.
In the broader market, losers outpaced gainers 602 to 462, with 558 counters unchanged, 1,013 counters untraded and six suspended.
Turnover declined to 2.59 billion shares valued at RM2.86bil from Tuesday’s 3.25 billion shares valued at RM3.34bil.
Rakuten Trade Sdn Bhd vice-president of equity research Thong Pak Leng said key regional indices closed mostly higher as selling in technology stocks was offset by renewed interest in industrial, financial and energy counters.
“Investor sentiment remained cautious after US President Donald Trump named former Federal Reserve (fed) governor Kevin Warsh as his choice for the next Fed chair, with his hawkish reputation fuelling expectations of higher-for-longer interest rates,” he told Bernama.
