SPI Asset Management managing director Stephen Innes said the local bourse took its cue from the recovery rally in the US, which offered global markets a bit of a respite.
“This was due to the US yielding the easing touch as traders considered the negative reaction was overdone,” he told Bernama.
Wall Street closed higher overnight, rebounding from the recent inflation-fuelled sell-off.
The Dow Jones Industrial Average added 0.4% to end at 38,424.27, Nasdaq rose 1.3% to close at 15,859.15 and S&P 500 rose 0.96% to finish at 5,000.62.
At 5pm, the benchmark FBM KLCI lost 0.95 of-a-point to 1,528.38 from yesterday’s close of 1,529.33.
The FBM KLCI opened 0.04 of-a-point easier at 1,529.29 and moved between 1,525.39 and 1,532.66 throughout the day.
Gainers beat losers 557 to 370 on the broader market, while 468 counters were unchanged, 904 untraded and 10 others suspended.
Turnover rose to 3.68 billion units valued at RM2.28 billion from yesterday’s 2.81 billion units valued at RM1.93 billion.
Losers in the heavyweights were led by CelcomDigi, which lost three sen at RM4.23, followed by Petronas Dagangan, which eased 30 sen to RM21.96, while Sime Darby Plantation and IOI Corporation were down four sen each to RM4.44 and RM3.98.
Meanwhile, Maybank was flat at RM9.40, Public Bank and CIMB declined one sen each to RM4.39 and RM6.36, while Tenaga Nasional added four sen to RM11.10.
As for the actives, TWL was unchanged at 3.5 sen, Minetech added two sen at 17 sen, Widad improved one sen to 13.5 sen, Sarawak Cable gained 7.5 sen to 23.5 sen and Sarawak Consolidated advanced four sen to 41 sen.
On the index board, the FBM Emas Index was 7.80 points higher at 11,366.66, the FBMT 100 Index advanced 2.94 points to 11,018.22, the FBM 70 Index put on 44.3 points to 15,359.23, the FBM Emas Shariah Index increased by 22.36 points to 11,405.76 and the FBM ACE Index gained 53.96 points to 4,896.55.
Sector-wise, the industrial products and services index added 0.95 of-a-point to 175.04 but the property index lost 0.53 of-a-point to 921.4, the plantation index dipped 19.37 points to 7,216.08 and the energy index fell 1.37 points to 889.34.
The financial services index dropped 13.52 points to 17,141.85.
The Main Market volume widened to 2.33 billion units valued at RM1.99 billion from yesterday’s 1.51 billion units worth RM1.69 billion.
Warrants turnover slipped to 669.04 million units worth RM105.4 million from 794.82 million units worth RM109.98 million yesterday.
The ACE Market volume improved to 653.41 million units worth RM174.73 million from 485.38 million units valued at RM132.17 million previously.
Consumer products and services counters accounted for 242.12 million shares traded on the Main Market, industrial products and services (763.9 million); construction (130.28 million); technology (350.11 million); SPAC (nil); financial services (78.83 million); property (428 million); plantation (21.25 million); REITs (15.84 million), closed/fund (31,700); energy (102.81 million); healthcare (53.84 million); telecommunications and media (32.22 million); transportation and logistics (30.09 million); and utilities (85.46 million).