Rakuten Trade equity research vice-president Thong Pak Leng said investors are waiting for economic data from Japan, Thailand, and the Philippines later this week.
“As for the local bourse, we reckon bargain-hunting will prevail, buoyed by the consistent strong inflow of foreign funds, improving economic circumstances, and steady interest rate in the US,” he told Bernama.
As such, he anticipated the FTSE Bursa Malaysia KLCI (FBM KLCI) to trend higher within the 1,445-1,465 range for the week, with immediate resistance at 1,465 and support at 1,445.
Meanwhile, Apex Securities Bhd head of research Kenneth Leong expects the local market’s downward bias consolidation undertone to extend as uncertainty persists, while there was an absence of fresh leads.
“Meanwhile, investors will be keeping a close tab on both China and US services and composite data tomorrow,” he said.
At 5pm, the FBM KLCI shed 0.37% or 5.36 points to 1,451.02 from Friday’s close of 1,456.38.
The benchmark index opened 1.41 points weaker at 1,454.97 and moved between 1,448.17 and 1,457.02 throughout the trading session.
Market breadth was negative, with decliners beating gainers by 591 to 306, while 430 counters were unchanged, 995 untraded, and 27 others suspended.
Turnover shrank to 3.16 billion units worth RM1.87 billion from 3.23 billion units worth RM2.26 billion last Friday.
Regionally, Hong Kong’s Hang Seng Index dropped 1.09% to 16,646.05, Singapore’s Straits Times Index slid 0.2% to 3,084.08, the Shanghai Stock Exchange Composite Index fell 0.29% to 3,022.91, and Japan’s Nikkei 225 shed 0.6% to 33,231.27.
Among the heavyweights, Maybank was unchanged at RM9.00, CIMB added one sen to RM5.78, while Public Bank and Tenaga Nasional gave up four sen each to RM4.28 and RM9.98 respectively, and Petronas Chemicals went down 15 sen to RM7.05.
As for the most active counters, Fitters, Widad and Sapura Energy were flat at five sen, 47 sen, and 4.5 sen respectively, Velesto eased 0.5 sen to 22 sen, and Berjaya Corp lost 1.5 sen to 28.5 sen.
On the index board, the FBM Emas Index shaved off 42.23 points at 10,683.42, the FBMT 100 Index slid 40.61 points to 10,354.17 and the FBM Emas Shariah Index tumbled 55.66 points to 10,821.92.
The FBM 70 Index decreased 65.03 points to 13,983.02 and the FBM ACE Index was 17.31 points lower at 5,115.85.
Sector-wise, the financial services index declined 15.21 points to 16,364.36, the industrial products and services index eased 1.72 points to 170.27, the energy index dropped 3.39 points to 812.21, and the plantation index slipped 7.19 points to 6,983.22.
The Main Market volume was flat at 1.9 billion units valued at RM1.62 billion against 1.9 billion units valued at RM1.98 billion on Friday.
Warrants turnover fell to 610.12 million units worth RM58.2 million from 639.84 million units worth RM68.94 million previously.
The ACE Market volume declined to 623.39 million shares valued at RM195.27 million versus 686.81 million shares valued at RM205.18 million yesterday.
Consumer products and services counters accounted for 462.14 million shares traded on the Main Market, industrial products and services (511.76 million); construction (79.15 million); technology (121.03 million); SPAC (nil); financial services (63.89 million); property (147.48 million); plantation (26.17 million); REITs (13.13 million), closed/fund (2,600); energy (238.69 million); healthcare (105.37 million); telecommunications and media (38.51 million); transportation and logistics (31.32 million); and utilities (68.54 million).