At 5pm, the benchmark FTSE Bursa Malaysia KLCI (FBM KLCI) eased by 0.73 of a point to 1,745.58 from Wednesday’s close of 1,746.31.
IPPFA Sdn Bhd director of investment strategy and country economist Sedek Jantan said market positioning across Asia remained largely defensive as investors avoided taking aggressive risk positions while awaiting greater clarity on the direction of the US-China trade relations and broader geopolitical landscape.
Despite the softer tone, he said the downside in the local market remained relatively orderly, reflecting continued underlying confidence in Malaysia’s domestic macroeconomic resilience.
“This also suggests that current weakness is still being interpreted as near-term consolidation rather than a deterioration in the broader market trend,” he told Bernama.
The benchmark index, which opened 2.79 points higher at 1,749.10, moved between 1,740.35 and 1,750.63 during today’s session.
Market breadth was negative, with losers edging gainers 599 to 558. A total of 612 counters were unchanged, 958 untraded, and 27 suspended.
Turnover decreased to 3.91 billion units worth RM3.22 billion compared with 4.14 billion units worth RM3.44 billion on Wednesday.
Among heavyweights, Maybank was flat at RM11.18, Public Bank lost five sen to RM4.83, Tenaga Nasional declined 24 sen to RM14.48, and CIMB was two sen weaker at RM7.90. IHH Healthcare added three sen to RM9.02.
On the most active list, Nationgate rose 8 sen to 87 sen, Zetrix AI and GIIB gained 1 sen each to 84.5 sen and 28 sen, respectively. EG Industries surged 20 sen to RM1.49 while Astro was flat at 5.5 sen.
Among the top gainers, Nestle jumped RM2.76 to RM102.40, Kelington climbed 58 sen to RM7.30, Allianz inched up 52 sen to RM21.64, and VSTECS soared 49 sen to RM5.96.
The top losers included Fraser & Neave, which slipped 16 sen to RM29.0, United Plantations decreased 14 sen to RM29.98, while Pentamaster and Time Dotcom slid 12 sen each to RM4.38 and RM6.24, respectively.
On the index board, the FBM Emas Index eased 3.35 points to 12,932.89, the FBMT 100 Index lost 6.06 points to 12,768.14, and the FBM Mid 70 Index declined 11.89 points to 18,536.91.
The FBM Emas Shariah Index increased by 27.63 points to 12,895.68 and the FBM ACE Index advanced by 30.88 points to 4,783.07.
By sector, the financial services index slumped 50.99 points to 20,251.06, the plantation index shrank 47.41 points to 8,671.84, and the energy index erased 6.16 points to 799.78. The industrial products and services index put on 1.53 points to 201.26.
The Main Market volume slipped to 2.06 billion units valued at RM2.81 billion from 2.32 billion units valued at RM3.07 billion on Wednesday.
Warrants turnover expanded to 1.28 billion units worth RM190.20 million from 1.18 billion units worth RM152.42 million previously.
The ACE Market volume tumbled to 565.81 million units valued at RM213.06 million from 638.74 million units valued at RM217.64 million yesterday.
Consumer products and services counters accounted for 206.30 million shares traded on the Main Market, industrial products and services (634.90 million), construction (168.44 million), technology (395.46 million), financial services (60.71 million), property (193.51 million), plantation (26.76 million), real estate investment trusts (21.13 million), closed-end fund (90,800), energy (77.32 million), healthcare (95.26 million), telecommunications and media (88.30 million), transportation and logistics (40.40 million), utilities (51.53 million), and business trusts (57,800).