At 5 pm, the FTSE Bursa Malaysia KLCI (FBM KLCI) lost 0.5%, or 7.26 points, to finish at 1,444.22 from Wednesday’s close of 1,451.48.
The benchmark index, which opened 4.02 points higher at 1,455.50, moved between 1,444.22 and 1,460.30 throughout the day.
Overall market breadth was negative with losers outpacing gainers 520 to 327, while 396 counters were unchanged, 1,039 untraded, and 65 others suspended.
Total turnover narrowed to 2.26 billion units worth RM1.97 billion from 2.37 billion units valued at RM1.77 billion on Wednesday.
Rakuten Trade Sdn Bhd vice-president of equity research Thong Pak Leng noted that regional key indices also finished broadly lower following negative cues from Wall Street overnight.
The Nikkei 225 in Tokyo declined after Japan’s May industrial production slumped 7.2% compared with the previous month.
However, Chinese markets closed higher as China reported stronger factory activity in June.
Its manufacturing purchasing managers’ index (PMI) rose to 50.2 in June from 49.6 in May, the first expansion since February.
Thong said this would likely benefit Malaysia given that China is Malaysia’s largest trading partner.
“We believe the direction of Malaysian equities is still very much dependent on regional and global (trends), although bargain-hunting may prevail due to attractive valuations.
“As such, we expect the FBM KLCI to trend sideways with an upside bias within the region of 1,440-1,460 towards the weekend with immediate support at 1,430 and resistance at 1,460,” he told Bernama.
Thong said as the market entered the second half of the year, there could be optimism for the equity market as foreign funds are expected to return to the region.
“Due to the economic problems and inflation challenges in the US and European Union, investors are likely to go into regions which are still experiencing economic growth, and Asia-Pacific is one of the prime destinations,” he said.
He also said the online brokerage’s year-end FBM KLCI target remained unchanged at 1,670, based on 13.5 times calendar year 2022 earnings.
Among the heavyweight counters, Public Bank fell five sen to RM4.37, Maybank lost six sen to RM8.59, Top Glove dipped eight sen to RM1.04, Tenaga eased 10 sen to RM7.98, Petronas Chemicals decreased seven sen to RM9.00, and IHH was down five sen to RM6.45.
Top Glove led the most active stocks list, followed by Cypark, which dropped 3.5 sen to 34.5 sen while Reach Energy and Widad were flat at 5.5 sen and 36.5 sen, respectively, and MQ Technology shed half-a-sen to 25 sen.
Among the top losers, Nestle fell 70 sen to RM132.60, KLK dropped 50 sen to RM21.94, and Petronas Dagangan slid 30 sen to RM21.12.
Sector-wise, the financial services index retreated 78.69 points to 15,984.18 and the plantation index was 69.81 points weaker at 6,900.83, but the industrial products and services index was 0.42 of-a-point higher at 181.70.