KUALA LUMPUR, June 8 — Bursa Malaysia ended marginally lower in cautious trading today amid weak global sentiment.

The benchmark FTSE Bursa Malaysia KLCI (FBM KLCI) finished 2.77 points weaker at 1,657.85 after opening 2.04 points lower at 1,658.58.

The index fluctuated between 1,663.16 and 1,653.25 throughout the day.  Losers edged gainers 445 to 355 with 334 counters unchanged, 576 untraded and 31 others suspended.

Volume slipped to 1.76 billion units worth RM1.78 billion from 1.93 billion shares valued at RM2.12 billion yesterday.

Mercury Securities Head of Research Edmund Tham said sentiment remained weak following China’s export data in May, which recorded a decline of 4.1 per cent from a year earlier compared with an expected fall of 3.6 per cent.

He said Japan’s revised growth estimate for the first quarter of the year to 1.9 per cent from the earlier reported 1.7 per cent growth was not of much help either.

“The total trading volume in the local bourse also seemed to be average, giving mixed signals to investors.

“Basically, investors are remaining on the sidelines as they await the US Federal Open Market Committee meeting next week as there is no clear direction currently,” he told Bernama.

Of the heavyweights, Maybank eased 12 sen to RM8.27, TNB was flat at RM14.00, Public Bank rose two sen to RM19.14 while IHH Healthcare decreased six sen to RM6.44.

Among actives, M3 Technologies fell 10.5 sen to 13.5 sen, Sumatec was flat at 11 sen, Bumi Armada added three sen to 74 sen and AWC increased 3.5 sen to 75.5 sen.

The FBM Emas Index lost 16.47 points to 11,598.49, the FBMT 100 Index shed 18.15 points to 11,292.35 but the FBM Emas Shariah Index gained 1.06 points to 12,157.72.

The FBM 70 fell 18.39 points to 13,133.78 and the FBM Ace declined 40.52 points to 5,447.91.

The Finance Index was down 46.94 points to 14,330.23, the Plantation Index slipped 36.76 points to 7,604.82 and the Industrial Index eased 10.04 points to 3,116.23.

Main Market turnover decreased to 1.09 billion shares worth RM1.66 billion from yesterday’s 1.31 billion shares valued at RM2.02 billion.

The ACE Market volume increased to 411.39 million shares worth RM83.29 million from 332.73 million shares valued at RM66.20 million.

Warrants fell to 252.94 million shares worth RM35.18 million from 293.97 million shares valued at RM37.10 million previously.         

Consumer products accounted for 70.03 million shares traded on the Main Market, industrial products (256.58 million), construction (41.76 million), trade and services (518.18 million), technology (23.56 million), infrastructure (11.20 million), SPAC (15.45 million), finance (33.12 million), hotels (611,700), properties (94.35 million), plantations (25.51 million), mining (16,000), REITs (6.31 million) and closed/fund (14,000).  ­— Bernama