Rakuten Trade Sdn Bhd equity research vice-president Thong Pak Leng said some sectors staged a rebound, with banking, plantation, construction, telco and consumer stocks driving gains.
“In contrast, utilities and some healthcare counters faced pressure as foreign selling weighed on,” he added.
Thong said that while regional indices ended mixed amid Tokyo’s inflation accelerating to 2.6%, fuelling speculation of rate hikes by the Bank of Japan, Chinese and Hong Kong markets rose on better industrial profits, suggesting stabilisation, but offered little support to the local market.
Meanwhile, UOB Kay Hian Wealth Advisors’ head of investment research Sedek Jantan attributed today’s market instability to yesterday’s US Thanksgiving holiday and shortened trading hours today, which contributed to a directionless market.
“Market participants are likely to extend the holiday over the weekend, leading to subdued activity in the financial markets in the near term,” Sedek added.
At 5pm, the FTSE Bursa Malaysia KLCI (FBM KLCI) slid 3.20 points or 0.20% to 1,594.29 from yesterday’s close of 1,597.49.
The index opened 1.13 points lower at 1,596.36 and moved between 1,586.39 and 1,603.59 today.
Decliners beat gainers 539 to 515 while 461 counters were unchanged, 945 untraded and 56 suspended.
Turnover expanded to 3.43 billion units valued at RM3.19 billion versus 2.79 billion units valued at RM2.9 billion yesterday.
Back home, heavyweight Tenaga Nasional led the decliners, losing 32 sen to RM13.66. MISC was 15 sen weaker at RM7.25, YTL Power ticked down five sen to RM3.40, and YTL Corp eased three sen to RM2.08.
Public Bank and SD Guthrie both gained six sen to RM4.47 and RM4.81 respectively, helping to mitigate further losses in the FBM KLCI.
Among the active stocks, Velesto Energy dropped 2.5 sen to 16 sen, while Supreme Consolidated, which has transferred from the LEAP to the ACE Market today, put on 5.5 sen to 30.5 sen.
Aimflex and MyEG lost 1.5 sen each to 16 sen and 86.5 sen respectively, while Capital A shed nine sen to RM1.
On the index board, the FBM Emas Index gave up 14.1 points to 12,131.13, the FBMT 100 Index trimmed 17.5 points to 11,823.79 and the FBM 70 Index lost 3.38 points to 17,859.82.
The FBM Emas Shariah Index dropped 52.88 points to 12,034.69 and the FBM ACE Index eased 17.49 points to 5,131.65.
Sector-wise, the financial services index surged 82.7 points to 19,190.03 and the plantation index garnered 42.62 points to 7,531.82.
The industrial products and services index ticked down 0.31 of-a-point to 170.29 and the energy index dropped 3.59 points to 812.29.
The Main Market volume advanced to 1.93 billion units worth RM2.93 billion against yesterday’s 1.7 billion units worth RM2.7 billion.
Warrants turnover increased to 823.8 million units valued at RM77.47 million from 745.57 million units valued at RM74.56 million previously.
The ACE Market volume almost doubled to 676.04 million units worth RM177.21 million compared with 345.58 million units worth RM123.11 million yesterday.
Consumer products and services counters accounted for 276.46 million shares traded on the Main Market, industrial products and services (349.98 million), construction (132.2 million), technology (233.34 million), SPAC (nil), financial services (126.99 million), property (159.28 million), plantation (77.61 million), REITs (9.53 million), closed/fund (48,700), energy (389.38 million), healthcare (63.9 million), telecommunications and media (25.23 million), transportation and logistics (21.83 million), utilities (64.71 million), and business trusts (153,100).