KUALA LUMPUR, Oct 8 — Bursa Malaysia ended mixed today as bargain hunting earlier in the day tapered off as profit-taking set in, while the market awaits fresh catalysts, dealers said. 

At 5pm, the benchmark FTSE Bursa Malaysia KLCI (FBM KLCI) trimmed 0.21 of-a-point at 1,558.79 compared with yesterday’s close of 1,559.00.

The index, which opened 1.46 points higher at 1,560.46, moved between 1,556.21 and 1,565.16 throughout the day.

Market breadth was, however, positive as gainers trumped losers 428 to 381, with 587 counters unchanged, 607 untraded and 29 others suspended.

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Turnover widened to 2.44 billion shares worth RM1.72 billion from 2.16 billion shares worth RM1.32 billion yesterday. 

Maybank IB Research said it expected the benchmark index to stage a technical rebound in the near term following plenty of divergence signals in banking stocks, while buying interest emerged in utility stocks.

“However, the rebound might be capped given the overall bias remains downward.

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“As the index has fallen close to a four-year low (last week), bargain hunting can be expected, although a stronger catalyst is needed to lift the benchmark index out from its gloomy outlook — for now,” it said in a note.

Among heavyweights, Maybank and Axiata declined two sen each to RM8.45 and RM4.26 respectively, Public Bank was four sen lower at RM19.30, while Tenaga improved six sen to RM13.70 and IHH added one sen to RM5.67.

As for the actives, Priceworth and VSolar improved half-a-sen each to six sen, respectively.

Meanwhile, Ekovest rose 6.5 sen to 79.5 sen while Bumi Armada was flat at 35 sen.

The FBM Emas Index rose 15.7 points to 11,074.25, the FBMT 100 Index put on 12.29 points to 10,896.65 and the FBM Emas Shariah Index was 19.6 points stronger at 11,671.54.

The FBM 70 climbed 72.12 points to 13,894.55 and the FBM ACE added 53.13 points to 4,614.93.

Sector-wise, the Financial Services Index rose 1.83 points to 15,032.64, the Plantation Index improved 21.02 points to 6,569.58 but the Industrial Products & Services Index was 0.04 of-a-point easier at 150.11.

Meanwhile, Petronas Dagangan Bhd, despite receiving upbeat reviews following the targeted petrol subsidy announcement by the government, fell 50 sen to RM23.18 at the close with 418,200 shares traded.

Main Market volume increased to 1.58 billion units worth RM1.55 billion from Monday’s 1.21 billion units worth RM1.14 billion.

Warrants turnover expanded to 417.7 million units worth RM74.27 million from 126.8 million units worth RM12.13 million previously.

Volume on the ACE Market declined to 437.09 million shares worth RM87.54 million from 831.42 million shares worth RM167.39 million yesterday.

Consumer products and services accounted for 154.73 million shares traded on the Main Market, industrial products and services (306.47 million), construction (189.73 million), technology (134.64 million), SPAC (nil), financial services (31.17 million), property (166.23 million), plantations (20.36 million), REITs (14.71 million), closed/fund (182,000), energy (295.67 million), healthcare (15.6 million), telecommunications and media (186.8 million), transportation and logistics (45.27 million), and utilities (23.89 million). — Bernama