KUALA LUMPUR, May 24 — Bursa Malaysia closed easier today weighed by foreign selling across the regional market as investors are growing more optimistic of a potential interest rate increase in the US next month.

The benchmark FTSE Bursa Malaysia KLCI (FBM KLCI) fell 9.05 points to 1,625.84, after moving between 1,631.76 and 1,625.81 throughout the day.

The market barometer opened 3.62 points lower at 1,631.27.

A dealer said Asian stock markets were down slightly in subdued trading due to the reverse of the fund flow ahead of the US Federal Reserve’s decision on its interest rate in mid-June.

He said this was a continuation of last week’s foreign selling trend in the region which saw foreign investors offload up to US$990 million (RM4 billion) worth of equities as intensified debate of a US Federal Reserve June rate hike dampened global investors’ appetite for Asian stocks.

On the scoreboard, the FBM Emas Index fell 56.87 points to 11,394.21, the FBMT100 Index lost 59.69 points to 11,083.88 and the FBM Emas Shariah Index was 42.439 points lower at 11,929.4.

The FBM 70 declined 62.439 points to 12,925.28 while the FBM Ace lost 43.56 points to 5,577.4.

The Finance Index shed 103.34 points to 14,188.08, the Plantation Index decreased 65.26 points to 7,453.57 and the Industrial Index shed 8.29 points to 3,064.97.

Losers beat gainers 456 to 327 with 381 counters unchanged, 580 untraded and 14 others were suspended.

Volume declined slightly to 1.72 billion units worth RM1.77 billion from yesterday’s 1.73 billion units worth RM1.38 billion.

Of heavyweights, Maybank lost 16 sen to RM8.31, Public Bank fell 10 sen to RM19.18, IHH Healthcare eased six sen to RM6.56 and Petronas Chemicals slipped one sen to RM6.42. TNB was flat at RM14.02.

Among actives, AirAsia X added one sen to 40 sen and Vsolar gained 1.5 sen to 10 sen while Vivocom was flat at 31 sen.

XOX and Eka Noodles shed half-a-sen each to 16 sen and 11.5 sen respectively.

Main Market turnover was higher at 1.16 billion shares worth RM1.68 billion from yesterday’s 1.07 billion shares valued at RM1.28 billion.

The ACE Market turnover fell to 449.36 million shares valued at RM73.54 million versus 560.72 million units valued at RM82.51 million yesterday.

Warrants expanded to 108.21 million units worth RM16.44 million from 105.43 million units valued at RM16.8 million previously.

Consumer products accounted for 102.71 million shares traded on the Main Market, industrial products (226.1 million), construction (57.38 million), trade and services (473.77 million), technology (37.09 million), infrastructure (22.21 million), SPAC (22.58 million), finance (65.48 million), hotels (2.28 million), properties (128.03 million), plantations (23.24 million), mining (12,000), REITs (6.94 million) and closed/fund (109,950). — Bernama