Rakuten Trade Sdn Bhd equity research vice-president Thong Pak Leng said the FTSE Bursa Malaysia KLCI (FBM KLCI) closed marginally lower, in tandem with the negative performance of regional markets and Wall Street.
He said their downtrend was due to the dampened investor sentiment following the release of the US Federal Reserve’s (Fed) most recent policy meeting minutes yesterday.
The minutes revealed that some of the Fed officials were in favour of increasing interest rates in mid-July.
“As US Treasury secretary Janet Yellen embarks on several days of meetings in Beijing, investors are closely monitoring any developments regarding the ongoing tensions between the US and China,” he told Bernama.
Back home, Thong reckons today’s selldown provides bargain-hunting opportunity for investors, and hence, he expects the FBM KLCI to stage a rebound and trend within the range of 1,380-1,395 towards the weekend.
“Technically speaking, we see the resistance at 1,400 with support at 1,373,” he added.
At 5pm, the FBM KLCI fell 3.95 points, or 0.28%, to 1,385.95 from 1,389.9 at yesterday’s close.
The key index opened 0.19 of-a-point lower at 1,389.71 this morning and moved between 1,381.86 and 1,389.71 throughout the session.
The broader market was also negative as losers trounced gainers 514 to 339, while 398 counters were unchanged, 995 untraded and 18 others suspended.
Turnover decreased slightly to 2.45 billion units worth RM1.65 billion versus 2.54 billion units worth RM1.52 billion on Wednesday.
Among the heavyweights, Maybank and CIMB added three sen each to RM8.73 and RM5.21, Public Bank lost two sen to RM3.88, Tenaga Nasional inched down one sen to RM9.07 and IHH Healthcare erased three sen to RM5.80.
Of the actives, Widad and BTM Resources gained 0.5 sen to 42 sen and 10 sen, and Jade Marvel perked up 1.5 sen to 22.5 sen, but Sarawak Consolidated and MyEG went down one sen each to 46.5 sen and 73 sen.
On the index board, the FBM Emas Index dipped 30.29 points to 10,221.23, the FBMT 100 Index fell 28.76 points to 9,916.63, the FBM Emas Shariah Index was 54.99 points lower at 10,476.34, the FBM ACE Index narrowed 28.82 points to 5,136.55, and the FBM 70 Index lost 41.29 points to 13,510.18.
Sector-wise, the financial services index edged up 9.67 points to 15,474.2, the industrial products and services index shaved 1.11 points to 157.86, the energy index decreased 6.01 points to 792.16, and the plantation index shed 54.8 points to 6,861.37.
The Main Market volume slipped to 1.63 billion units valued at RM1.35 billion from 1.79 billion units valued at RM1.28 billion yesterday.
Warrant turnover increased to 292.22 million units worth RM45.05 million against 258.97 million units worth RM43.42 million yesterday.
The ACE Market’s volume widened to 532.4 million shares valued at RM256.35 million from 439.84 million shares valued at RM203.20 million previously.
Consumer products and services counters accounted for 346.28 million shares traded on the Main Market, industrial products and services (516.21 million); construction (52.75 million); technology (130.31 million); SPAC (nil); financial services (88.92 million); property (209.79 million); plantation (24.57 million); Reits (4.52 million), closed/fund (26,600); energy (67.42 million); healthcare (65.17 million); telecommunications and media (57.68 million); transportation and logistics (29.03 million); and utilities (35.57 million).