KUALA LUMPUR: Continued selling pressure dragged the FBM KLCI lower for a fourth straight session, mirroring weakness across regional markets.
At 5pm, the 30-stock index fell 9.23 points, or 0.58%, to 1,585.96, extending its losing streak to a fourth consecutive session. The index has lost 30.62 points so far this week.
Losers more than doubled gainers on Bursa Malaysia, with 799 counters down, 318 up and 476 unchanged. Trading volume stood at 3.06 billion shares worth RM2.56bil.
Dealers said sentiment remained cautious amid weakness across regional markets, with selling pressure in selected heavyweights and a lack of fresh buying catalysts keeping Bursa Malaysia on the defensive.
Among the top losers, Nestle fell 60 sen to RM94.94, F&N and Hong Leong Industries shed 40 sen each to RM20.14 and RM16.40, respectively, while YTL Power declined 39 sen to RM4.40 and UWC lost 31 sen to RM6.37.
Gainers included United Plantations, which surged RM1.36 to RM31.60, Heineken Malaysia
, which gained 56 sen to RM13.88, Kuala Lumpur Kepong, which rose 30 sen to RM21.38, Carlsberg, which added 26 sen to RM13.10, and Concrete Engineering Products, which climbed 22 sen to RM4.60.
Foreign funds were net sellers of RM21mil worth of equities on Bursa Malaysia on Wednesday, while local institutions and retail investors were net buyers of RM3mil and RM19mil, respectively.
Meanwhile, Brent crude rose 29 cents, or 0.31%, to US$93.05 a barrel, while U.S. West Texas Intermediate crude gained 27 cents or 0.31%, to US$86.80 per barrel.
Elsewhere in the region, MSCI's broadest index of Asia-Pacific shares outside Japan fell 1.44%.
Japan's Nikkei 225 closed 0.7% lower at 60,819.36, while South Korea's Kospi shed 0.61% to 5,342.73.
Hong Kong's Hang Seng index declined 1.16% to 24,008.55 and Taiwan’s Taiex tumbled 2.63% to 43,091.87.
In China, the CSI300 index slipped 0.78% to 4,043.93, while the Shanghai Composite Index lost 0.67% to 3,655.83.
