KUALA LUMPUR, Jan 29 — Share prices on Bursa Malaysia tumbled for the second consecutive day today on persistent selling pressures amid weak regional markets and Wall Street, dealers said.

At 5pm, the benchmark FTSE Bursa Malaysia KLCI (FBM KLCI) was 13.7 points lower at 1,782.18, after opening 4.29 points lower at 1,791.59.

The index fluctuated between 1,783.43 and 1,794.82 throughout the day.

Regional markets followed overnight US markets into negative territory as investors were spooked by the Federal Reserve’s statement of a possible June 2015 interest rate increase.

Market breadth was weak with decliners outpacing gainers by 581 to 262, while 300 counters were unchanged, 608 untraded and 31 others suspended.

Total turnover decreased to 1.89 billion shares worth RM2.23 billion from 2.01 billion shares worth RM2.31 billion yesterday.

Kenaga Research said the FBM KLCI was likely to continue to consolidate towards 1,770 level.

It said the lack of near-term catalysts and the monetary policy easing by Singapore yesterday would affect the near-term sentiment of the local banking industry.

Of the top losers, Hong Leong Financial Group fell 66 sen to RM16.50, VS Industry lost 33 sen to RM3.57 and AMMB Holdings declined 27 sen to RM6.30.

Among actives, Globaltec rose one sen to 7.5 sen, The Media Shoppe gained half a sen to 6.5 sen and Hubline was flat at 3.5 sen.

Of the heavyweights, Tenaga Nasional lost 24 sen to RM14.56, Maybank slipped three sen to RM8.66 and Public Bank declined six sen to RM18.08.

On scoreboard, the FBM Emas Index declined 86.65 points to 12,272.79, FBMT100 Index lost 80.68 points to 11,981.57 and the FBM Emas Shariah Index declined 86.65 points to 12,272.79.

The FBM 70 declined 46 points to 13,363.4. The FBM Ace rose 2.38 points to 6,463.01.

On a sectoral basis, the Industrial Index eased 31.55 points to 3,244.69, Finance Index trimmed 111.24 points to 15,403.45 and the Plantation Index fell 59.5 points to 7,990.83.

Main Market volume declined to 1.24 billion units worth RM2.08 billion from 1.29 billion units worth RM2.14 billion yesterday.

Turnover on the ACE Market decreased to 535.54 million shares worth RM110.91 million from 578.37 million shares worth RM137.38 million yesterday.

Warrants went down to 108.95 million units valued at RM33.18 million from 139.02 million units valued at RM35.57 million previously.

Consumer products accounted for 99.8 million shares traded on the Main Market, industrial products (262.42 million), construction (58.99 million), trade and services (507.52 million), technology (63.79 million), infrastructure (20.74 million), SPAC (18.61 million), finance (76.33 million), hotels (4.72 million), properties (100.18 million), plantations (16.49 million), mining (64,000), REITs (9.61 million) and closed/fund (10,000). — Bernama