KUALA LUMPUR, Sept 23 — Bursa Malaysia ended the day in the red on weaker buying demand as cautious sentiment continued to cloud the market given nagging internal and external concerns.

At 5pm, the benchmark FTSE Bursa Malaysia KLCI (FBM KLCI) ended 22.2 points lower at 1,613.17, after moving between 1,609.83 and 1,626.96 throughout the day.

Losers outpaced gainers by 483 to 315 while 283 counters were unchanged, 752 untraded and 18 others suspended.

Volume decreased to 1.77 billion shares valued at RM2.12 billion from 1.98 billion shares valued at RM1.95 billon recorded yesterday.

Trading sentiment was cautious on news that the Caixin China manufacturing purchasing managers' index fell to a six-and-a-half-year low of 47 in September, as well as concerns over the slowing global economy.

HLIB Research said given the index’s grossly oversold hourly chart, it might find some support near 1,624, followed by 1,606 and the 1,600 psychological level.

“On the flip side, a swift rebound above 1,652 will see the FBM KLCI resume its uptrend towards 1,669 and 1,692 levels,” it said in a note.

Meanwhile, Bursa Malaysia and its derivatives will be closed tomorrow for the Hari Raya Aidiladha public holiday.

On heavyweights, Maybank lost 11 sen to RM8.41, Public Bank fell 44 sen to RM17.68, Tenaga was down 14 sen to RM12.04, Axiata was 16 sen lower at RM5.90 and Maxis declined 9.0 sen to RM6.47.

Among actives, UEM Sunrise added 8.0 sen to RM1.15, Global Oriental gained 6.0 sen to 57 sen and AirAsia lost one sen to RM1.36.

On the scoreboard, the FBM 70 was 125.47 points lower at 12,200.86, FBM Ace eased 2.42 points to 5,537.48 and the FBM Emas Index fell 137.23 points to 11,153.03.

The FBMT100 Index declined 140.72 points to 10,866.81 and the FBM Emas Shariah Index contracted 141.12 points to 11,786.18.

On a sectoral basis, the Finance Index gave up 177.46 points to 14,011.56, Plantation Index declined 61.76 points to 6,932.7 and the Industrial Index depreciated 12.7 points to 3,098.41.

Main Market volume rose to 1.01 billion units worth RM1.93 billion from 966.95 million units worth RM1.65 billion recorded yesterday.

Turnover on the ACE Market fell to 257.86 million shares worth RM86.86 million from 487.15 million shares worth RM195.95 million yesterday.

Warrants went down to 503.44 million units worth RM105.62 million from 533.96 million units worth RM98.15 million previously.

Consumer products accounted for 70.11 million shares traded on the Main Market, industrial products (148.97 million), construction (36.22 million), trade and services (400.71 million), technology (14.84 million), infrastructure (13.49 million), SPAC (8.34 million), finance (63.34 million), hotel (990,500), properties (288.08 million), plantations (25.31 million), mining (16,500), REITs (4.08 million) and closed/fund (37,800). — Bernama