KUALA LUMPUR, July 15 (Bernama) -- Bursa Malaysia ended the week marginally lower, with the index declining 0.11 per cent due to lack of buying catalyst amid a lacklustre trading day, a dealer said.

At 5pm, the FTSE Bursa Malaysia KLCI (FBM KLCI) slipped 1.62 points to 1,418.44 from Thursday's close of 1,420.06.

The benchmark index opened unchanged at 1,420.06 -- also its intraday high -- and slid to a low of 1,415.46 during the morning session, and continued to trade within that range in the afternoon session.

On the broader market, losers surpassed gainers 425 to 388, while 419 counters were unchanged, 1,044 untraded, and 20 others suspended.

Total turnover improved to 2.05 billion units valued at RM1.06 billion against 2.01 billion units valued at RM1.20 billion on Thursday.

Rakuten Trade Sdn Bhd vice-president of equity research Thong Pak Leng said key regional indices closed mixed today on renewed recession fears due to aggressive monetary tightening by global central banks.

On the home front, he said the local bourse is expected to see muted reaction as investor sentiment remained soft for the time being.

"Hence, we anticipate the index to trend sideways for next week with immediate support at 1,400 and resistance at 1,460," he told Bernama.

Among the heavyweights, Maybank eased three sen to RM8.59, Public Bank was flat at RM4.40, Petronas Chemicals gained eight sen to RM8.11, IHH Healthcare lost one sen to RM6.43, and CIMB fell five sen to RM5.05.

Of the actives, Sapura Energy was flat at four sen, Top Glove dipped 2.5 sen to 99.5 sen, while MYEG and Metronic lost half-a-sen each to 80 sen and 8.5 sen, respectively. — Bernama