KUALA LUMPUR, June 6 — Bursa Malaysia settled slightly higher at close today backed by mild buying support in selected heavyweights amid mixed regional market performance.

At 5pm, the FTSE Bursa Malaysia KLCI (FBM KLCI) rose 1.91 points to 1,383.17 from 1,381.26 at the close last Friday.

The key index opened 0.84 points higher at 1,382.10 this morning and moved between 1,377.35 and 1,383.58 throughout the session.

However, the broader market was negative with 507 decliners and 355 advancers, while 413 counters were unchanged, 968 untraded and 14 others suspended.

Turnover narrowed to 3.55 billion units worth RM1.92 billion versus 3.60 billion units worth RM1.94 billion on Friday.

Rakuten Trade Sdn Bhd equity research vice-president Thong Pak Leng said key regional indices were influenced by the investors’ mixed reactions after economic data showed that the United States (US) services sector unexpectedly softened in May.

The latest data indicated some signs of economic weakening in the US, he told Bernama.

“Trading activities across the region remained somewhat subdued as investors look ahead to next week’s US Federal Reserve meeting,” he said.

Thong opined that the local market bellwether was expected to inch higher ahead of the proposed dissolution of the state legislatures at end-June 2023.

He added that the investors were reluctant to commit large positions in the stock market due to the local political climate at the moment.

“Nonetheless, the benchmark index remains in the oversold position for some time and we expect bargain hunting to prevail, hence, we anticipate the FBM KLCI to trend higher within the 1,380-1,395 range for the week,” he said.

Among heavyweights, Maybank was flat at RM8.58, Public Bank added three sen to RM3.81, Tenaga Nasional eased 12 sen to RM9.30, CelcomDigi slid eight sen to RM4.40, and Petronas Chemicals shed three sen to RM6.52.

Of the actives, Borneo Oil was flat at 1.5 sen, Dagang NeXchange fell 4.5 sen to 47 sen, Advance Synergy rose 1.5 sen to 15 sen, Techna-X put on half-a-sen to two sen, and Classita gained one sen to 13 sen.

On the index board, the FBM Emas Index shrank by 10.38 points to 10,196.79, the FBMT 100 Index gave up 13.13 points to 9,895.32, the FBM Emas Shariah Index erased 9.63 points to 10,581.23, the FBM 70 Index dipped 128.62 points to 13,476.02, and FBM ACE Index declined 30.85 points to 5,039.41.

Sector-wise, the Financial Services Index slipped 2.16 points to 15,091.79, the Energy Index fell 20.85 points to 790.43, and the Plantation Index increased 86.87 points to 6,711.43, while the Industrial Products and Services Index was flat at 159.78.

The Main Market volume expanded to 2.39 billion units valued at RM1.66 billion from 2.16 billion units valued at RM1.61 billion on Friday.

Warrants turnover increased to 423.12 million units worth RM59.84 million against 417.89 million units worth RM56.58 million previously.

The ACE Market volume dwindled to 734.62 million shares valued at RM203.45 million from 1.03 billion shares valued at RM265 million on Friday last week.

Consumer products and services counters accounted for 438.57 million shares traded on the Main Market, industrial products and services (639.45 million); construction (40.09 million); technology (321.54 million); SPAC (nil); financial services (71.70 million); property (215.31 million); plantation (25.83 million); REITs (9.89 million), closed/fund (5,000); energy (449.42 million); healthcare (57.79 million); telecommunications and media (34.59 million); transportation and logistics (34.21 million); and utilities (56.30 million). — Bernama