KUALA LUMPUR, May 27 — The local benchmark index on Bursa Malaysia closed lower today on across-the-board selling as unfavourable external developments clouded the local market.

At 5pm, the key benchmark FBM KLCI stood at 1,755.05, 9.02 points easier, after hovering between 1,749.78 and 1,758.35 throughout the day.

A dealer said the local market reacted negatively to better-than-expected housing and manufacturing data in the US released yesterday, as this would boost chances of an interest rate hike by the Federal Reserve this year.

Losers outpaced gainers by 506 to 274, while 327 counters were unchanged, 720 untraded and 25 others suspended.

Total volume rose to 1.78 billion units worth RM2.19 billion from 1.58 billion units worth RM1.93 billion yesterday.                

Of the heavyweights, Maybank eased one sen to RM9.14, Public Bank declined 22 sen to RM18.78, Axiata depreciated 4.0 sen to RM6.56 while Tenaga added 10 sen to RM13.40.

Among actives, Sumatec rose 1.5 sen to 20.5 sen while Xinghe and Frontken were flat at 7.0 sen and 29 sen, respectively.

On the scoreboard, the FBM Emas Index declined 56.51 points to 12,143.48, the FBMT100 Index erased 55.85 points to 11,825.41, the FBM Emas Syariah Index decreased 64.64 points to 12,607.75 and the FBM 70 lost 43.98 points to 13,289.28.

The FBM Ace was 9.37 points better at 6,720.78.

The Finance Index slipped 30.37 points to 15,698.71, the Industrial Index shed 2.13 points to 3,202.74 and the Plantation Index fell 121.38 points to 7,285.35.

Main Market volume increased to 945.68 million shares worth RM1.98 billion from 929.23 million shares worth RM1.72 billion yesterday.

Turnover on the ACE Market increased to 621.46 million shares worth RM124.22 million from 466.54 million shares worth RM144.51 million recorded yesterday.

Warrants rose to 210.46 million shares worth RM77.66 million from 184.94 million shares worth RM63.35 previously.

Consumer products accounted for 43.39 million shares traded on the Main Market, industrial products (187.26 million), construction (54.07 million), trade and services (452.56 million), technology (40.42 million), infrastructure (18.37 million), SPAC (6.83 million), finance (42.74 million), hotels (2.89 million), properties (60.63 million), plantations (26.33 million), mining (29,000), REITs (10.1 million) and closed/fund (2,500). — Bernama