KUALA LUMPUR, March 11 — The benchmark FTSE Bursa Malaysia KLCI (FBM KLCI) ended lower today on continuous selling activities in heavyweights, mainly finance-related stocks. 

At 5 pm, the FBM KLCI settled at 1,778.16, down 11.57 points after fluctuating between 1,774.97 and 1,787.23 throughout the day.

Inter-Pacific Research Sdn Bhd Head of Research Pong Teng Siew said the market was digesting the impact of the fall on Wall Street overnight, amid speculation the US Federal Reserve is moving closer to raising interest rates by mid-2015.

“As a result, a lot of funds decided to flee the market,” he told Bernama, adding the FBM KLCI is not expected to fall below 1,774 this week. 

Pong said the current downtrend would likely persist until mid-April and rebound thereafter.

The weaker market was against a negative backdrop in regional markets, with Singapore’s Straits Times declining 0.75 per cent to 23,717.97 and Hong Kong’s Hang Seng going down 0.57 per cent to 3,378.99.

However, Japan’s Nikkei bucked up the trend and rose 0.31 per cent to 18,723.52.

Of the heavyweights, CIMB lost 15 sen to RM5.80, Maybank fell 14 sen to RM9.09, Public Bank trimmed 18 sen to RM18.20 and Petronas Chemicals declined six sen to RM5.09.

Among the most actively-traded stocks, The Media Shoppe and Asia Bioenergy edged up half-a-sen to 6.5 sen and 11 sen respectively, Privasia added one sen to 29.5 sen and Wintoni Group rose three sen to 34.5 sen. 

Market breadth was negative as losers trounced gainers by 523 to 321 with 296 counters unchanged, 612 untraded and 10 others suspended.

Total volume eased slightly to 2.50 billion shares worth RM2.23 billion compared to 2.53 billion shares worth RM2.31 billion yesterday.

The FBM Emas Index contracted 82.04 points to 12,266.22, the FBMT100 Index fell 79.13 points to 11,950.46 while the FBM Ace advanced 122.2 points to  6,985.85.

The FBM Emas Shariah Index was 47.51 points lower at 12,886.19 and the FBM 70 slid 93.39 points to 13,312.94.

On a sectoral basis, the Industrial Index gained 6.87 points to 3,279.49, the Plantation Index declined 40.74 points to 7,781.27 and the Finance Index dipped 196.96 points to 15,788.89.

Main Market volume decreased to 1.0 billion units worth RM1.96 billion from yesterday’s 1.28 billion units worth RM2.08 billion.

Turnover on the ACE Market was higher at 1.37 billion shares valued at RM244.89 million versus 1.14 billion shares valued at RM207.33 million yesterday.

Warrants appreciated to 127.17 million units worth RM25.42 million from 104.94 million units worth RM23.12 million previously.

Consumer products accounted for 156.08 million shares traded on the Main Market, industrial products (136.54 million), construction (50.70 million), trade and services (379.62 million), technology (66.99 million), infrastructure (14.71 million), SPAC (17.51 million), finance (53.90 million), hotels (2.04 million), properties (99.81 million), plantations (19.85 million) and REITs (7.58 million). — Bernama