At 5pm, the FTSE Bursa Malaysia KLCI (FBM KLCI) fell 5.55 points, or 0.39%, to 1,417.37 from Friday’s close of 1,422.92.
The barometer index opened slightly higher at 1,423.53 this morning and then fluctuated between 1,415.94 and 1,427.36 throughout the session.
The market breadth was negative with decliners beating gainers 547 to 304, while 411 counters were unchanged, 995 untraded, and 28 others suspended.
Turnover dropped marginally to 2.66 billion units worth RM1.41 billion from 2.74 billion units valued at RM1.77 billion on Friday.
Malacca Securities Sdn Bhd senior analyst Kenneth Leong said the FBM KLCI trended lower today on worries over the US debt ceiling and ahead of the release of China’s retail sales and industrial production data due tomorrow.
“Going forward, we expect the sentiment to remain tepid in the absence of fresh leads, while foreign funds are still trimming their holdings in Malaysian equities. Still, investors may keep a close watch on the current quarterly results reporting season,” he told Bernama.
Leong sees immediate support at 1,413 points and resistance at 1,437 and 1,450.
Among the heavyweight counters, Public Bank eased 3 sen to RM3.94, Petronas Chemicals shed 5 sen to RM6.98, CelcomDigi declined 6 sen to RM4.42 while Maybank was flat at RM8.69.
Tenaga, however, rose 6 sen to RM9.52 and CIMB Bank gained 3 sen to RM4.98.
As for the actives, VSolar was flat at half-a-sen, Jade Marvel inched down half-a-sen to 26.5 sen, BSL Corporation added half-a-sen to five sen while Revenue Group slipped 1 sen to 31.5 sen.
On the index board, the FBM Emas Index shaved 39.02 points to 10,376.63, the FBMT 100 Index gave up 38.27 points to 10,073.11 and the FBM ACE Index shed 3.47 points to 4,981.01.
The FBM 70 Index dropped 46.47 points to 13,441.69, and the FBM Emas Shariah Index lost 48.38 points to 10,727.54.
Sector-wise, the industrial products and services index trimmed 1.4 points to 165.72, the energy index eased two points to 827.39, the financial services index declined 23.89 points to 15,489.39, and the plantation index fell 64.94 points to 6,891.72.
The Main Market volume went down to 1.62 billion units valued at RM1.17 billion from 1.7 billion units valued at RM1.5 billion on Friday.
Warrants turnover improved to 394.36 million units worth RM69.14 million against 338.39 million units worth RM54.18 million last Friday.
The ACE Market volume reduced to 649.65 million shares valued at RM175.52 million versus 699.03 million shares valued at RM215.96 million previously.
Consumer products and services counters accounted for 250.99 million shares traded on the Main Market, industrial products and services (550.72 million); construction (40.99 million); technology (190.77 million); SPAC (nil); financial services (43.69 million); property (200.63 million); plantation (27.36 million); REITs (10.64 million), closed/fund (9,000); energy (139.46 million); healthcare (64.94 million); telecommunications and media (45.41 million); transportation and logistics (29.91 million); and utilities (21.37 million).