KUALA LUMPUR, June 25 — Bursa Malaysia ended lower today as selling pressure in industrial products and services stocks outweighed gains in the telecommunications sector, an analyst said.

At 5 pm, the benchmark FTSE Bursa Malaysia KLCI (FBM KLCI) slid 1.09 per cent, or 18.31 points, to end at its intraday low of 1,663.82 from yesterday’s close of 1,682.13. 

The index opened 2.32 points higher at 1,684.45 and subsequently hit its day high of 1,685.17 in the early session.

Market breadth was negative with decliners outpacing gainers 623 to 478. to A total of 534 counters were unchanged, 1,116 untraded, and 40 suspended.

Turnover expanded to 3.18 billion units worth RM2.89 billion, against 2.76 billion units valued at RM2.42 billion on Wednesday.

IPPFA Sdn Bhd director of investment strategy and country economist Mohd Sedek Jantan said that despite all the telecommunications constituents in the FBM KLCI closed in positive territory, their advances were insufficient to offset broad-based weakness in heavyweights across the industrial and banking counters.

Besides, banking stocks remained under pressure as investors continued to price in a prolonged higher-for-longer global interest rate environment following hawkish signals from the European Central Bank, the Bank of Japan, and the US Federal Reserve (Fed).

The prospect of policy rates remaining elevated has tempered expectations for near-term monetary easing, prompting investors to adopt a more cautious stance towards interest rate-sensitive sectors, he said.

Mohd Sedek also said investor sentiment remained cautious ahead of the release of the US Personal Consumption Expenditures (PCE) Price Index, the Fed’s preferred measure of inflation, later tonight.

He said the data is expected to provide further guidance on the Fed’s policy trajectory, with a stronger-than-expected reading likely to reinforce expectations that interest rates will remain higher for longer.

“Overall, market sentiment is expected to remain selective as investors assess the US inflation data alongside evolving global monetary policy expectations.

“While sector rotation may continue to support selected defensive counters, lingering external uncertainties are likely to keep the benchmark index trading cautiously in the near term,” he said.

Among heavyweights, Press Metal slipped 50 sen to RM7.79, Petronas Chemicals shed 18 sen to RM3.92, MISC fell 31 sen to RM7.79, Gamuda eased 11 sen to RM4.25, and IHH Healthcare slid 16 sen to RM8.57.

As for the active counters, Zetrix AI added 1.5 sen to 77 sen, AirAsia X was 7.0 sen weaker at RM1.23, Tanco erased half a sen to 13.5 sen, while both Dagang NeXchange and VS Industry rose half a sen each to 44.5 sen and 20 sen respectively.

On the gainers’ list, MPI advanced RM2.12 to RM49.00, F&N bagged 78 sen to RM28.18, Vitrox leapt 50 sen to RM7.85, Kelington jumped 40 sen to RM7.94, and UMS Integration climbed 33 sen to RM8.50.

For the top losers, United Plantations fell RM1.32 to RM32.30, KLK sank 38 sen to RM21.22, Petronas Dagangan gave up 24 sen to RM18.40, and Tenaga Nasional lost 14 sen to RM14.24.

On the broader market, the FBM Emas Index slumped 94.51 points to 12,380.15, the FBM Top 100 Index shrank 97.66 points to 12,210.63, and the FBM Emas Shariah Index dipped 88.86 points to 12,287.68.

The FBM Mid 70 Index increased 12.35 points to 17,899.61 and the FBM ACE Index gained 20.03 points to 4,787.06.

Sector-wise, the Financial Services Index tumbled 158.10 points to 19,598.23, the Energy Index dropped 4.80 points to 745.40, the Plantation Index plummeted 131.92 points to 8,848.27, and the Industrial Products and Services Index eased 3.87 points to 180.79.

The Main Market volume widened to 1.65 billion units valued at RM2.60 billion compared with 1.40 billion units worth RM2.13 billion on Wednesday.

Warrants turnover improved to 1.05 billion units worth RM116.27 million versus 947.50 million units valued at RM118.73 million previously.

The ACE Market volume expanded to 473.76 million units valued at RM174.83 million from 411.17 million units worth RM168.90 million yesterday.

Consumer products and services counters accounted for 241.94 million shares traded on the Main Market, industrial products and services (372.26 million), construction (104.56 million), technology (326.86 million), financial services (70.10 million), property (199.97 million), plantation (26.78 million), real estate investment trusts (15.36 million), closed-end fund (37,600), energy (82.42 million), healthcare (95.35 million), telecommunications and media (53.50 million), transportation and logistics (31.89 million), utilities (37.15 million), and business trusts (1.06 million). — Bernama