KUALA LUMPUR, Sept 28 —  Bursa Malaysia closed lower for the eighth consecutive session today, weighed down by selling in most heavyweights led by Genting Malaysia, Astro and Westports.

At 5pm, the FTSE Bursa Malaysia KLCI (FBM KLCI) closed 6.18 points weaker at its intraday low of 1,758.06 from Wednesday’s close of 1,764.24. 

The benchmark index opened 1.59 points better at 1,765.83 and touched an intraday high of 1,767.18 earlier.

Market breadth was negative with 505 decliners and 328 advancers, while 369 counters were unchanged, 666 untraded and 66 others suspended.

Volume, however, increased to 2.31 billion units valued at RM2.19 billion from 2.21 billion units valued at RM2.16 billion. 

Inter-Pacific Securities Sdn Bhd Head of Research, Pong Teng Siew, said the softer Bursa performance was due to the withdrawal of foreign funds from the local market as the US Federal Reserve (Fed) planned to tighten its balance sheet beginning next month. 

"The Fed is on the move to trim its balance sheet. That also caused the US dollar to strengthen,” he told Bernama.

Of the heavyweights, Genting MAlaysia and Astro lost 10 sen each to RM5.32 and RM2.74, respectively, Westports trimmed 12 sen to RM3.73, MISC and RHB Bank both declined nine sen to RM7.30 and RM5.03, respectively.

Petronas Chemicals added one sen to RM7.30 while Public Bank and Sime Darby were flat at RM20.58 and RM9.01, respectively. 

The FBM Emas Index fell 44.02 points to 12,518.29, FBMT 100 Index reduced 43.89 points to 12,173.57,  FBM Emas Shariah Index declined 32.99 points to 12,748.21, FBM 70 went down 57.95 points to 14,914.24 and the FBM Ace was 44.8 points easier at 6,496.91. 

Sector-wise, the Plantation Index increased 25.72 points to 7,888.7, the Finance Index decreased 76.62 points to 16,562.8 and Industrial Index lost 13.57 points to 3,200.55.

Among active counters, Hubline edged up half-a-sen to 11.5 sen, Tiger Synergy was flat at six sen, Hibiscus Petroleum and Naim Indah inched down half-a-sen each to 64.5 sen and six sen respectively while KNM Group fell 1.5 sen to 26.5 sen.

The Main Market volume was slightly lower at 1.66 billion units worth RM2.08 billion from Wednesday’s 1.78 billion units worth RM2.06 billion. 

Volume on the ACE Market swelled to 504.63 million shares valued at RM96.01 million from 299.98 million shares valued at RM81.18 million yesterday.

Warrants rose to 134.62 million units worth RM13.12 million from 126.84 million units worth RM11.19 million. 

Consumer products accounted for 40.78 million shares traded on the Main Market, industrial products (421.10 million), construction (99.38 million), trade and services (668.59 billion), technology (90.85 million), infrastructure (3.64 million), SPAC (4.26 million), finance (75.24 million), hotels (541,500), properties (226.69 million), plantations (21.45 million), mining (5,100), REITs (10.22 million), and closed/fund (6,500). — Bernama