KUALA LUMPUR, June 30 — Bursa Malaysia gave up modest gains earlier to close broadly lower today on persistent selling in selected heavyweights led by telecommunications and media as well as financial services counters.

At 5pm, the FTSE Bursa Malaysia KLCI (FBM KLCI) slipped 11.69 points, or 0.84 per cent, to 1,376.68 from 1,388.37 at Wednesday’s close.

The key index opened 0.15 of a point firmer at 1,388.52 this morning and moved between 1,370.15 and 1,391.48 throughout the session.

The broader market was also negative as losers thumped gainers 506 to 348, while 393 counters were unchanged, 1,077 untraded and 96 others suspended.

Turnover narrowed to 2.65 billion units worth RM2.03 billion versus 2.82 billion units worth RM1.49 billion on Wednesday.

Malacca Securities Sdn Bhd senior analyst Kenneth Leong said the FBM KLCI retreated today following the mid-year fund rebalancing by institutional funds today.

“With the selling pressure in financial services heavyweights, the key index sank to close at a three-week low.

“Technically, if the 1,370 support is unable to hold, further pullback may be envisaged towards 1,350. Immediate resistance is spotted at 1,400-1,412,” he told Bernama.

Meanwhile, Rakuten Trade Sdn Bhd equity research vice-president Thong Pak Leng said the market bellwether closed sharply lower and became the worst performer in the region, attributed to huge selling towards the end of the trading session.

“The key regional indices ended mixed as investors are cautious in view that the US Federal Reserve may keep interest rates higher for longer than anticipated,” he said.

In the meantime, China’s June 2023 headline manufacturing purchasing managers’ index (PMI) of 49.0 came in above market forecast of 48.8, while the non-manufacturing PMI rose to 53.2, which was higher than the 50.2 as forecast.

In Japan, Tokyo’s core consumer price index in June was at 3.1 per cent versus forecast of 3.8 per cent, and remained at levels above the central bank’s target for 13 straight months.

Of the heavyweight stocks, Maybank lost 10 sen to RM8.63, Public Bank eased two sen to RM3.85, CIMB went down nine sen to RM5.06, while Tenaga Nasional increased four sen to RM9.05 and IHH Healthcare gained two sen to RM5.89.

Of the actives, TWL and MyEG slid half-a-sen each to three sen and 75 sen, Classita edged down one sen to 8.5 sen, Sarawak Consolidated rose two sen to 47 sen, while Widad was flat at 42 sen.

On the index board, the FBM Emas Index shaved off 61.75 points to 10,141.34, the FBMT 100 Index gave up 62.98 points to 9,844.00, the FBM Emas Shariah Index shrank 58.40 points to 10,414.87, the FBM ACE Index shed 11.15 points to 5,068.02, while the FBM 70 Index perked up by 1.62 points to 13,384.58.

Sector-wise, the Financial Services Index declined 94.60 points to 15,332.87, the Industrial Products and Services Index slid 0.95 of-a-point to 156.92, the Energy Index edged down by 6.85 points to 774.09, and the Plantation Index fell 27.20 points to 6,698.65.

The Main Market volume dwindled to 1.93 billion units valued at RM1.82 billion from 2.12 billion units valued at RM1.25 billion on Wednesday.

Warrants turnover expanded to 226.52 million units worth RM39.82 million against 203.86 million units worth RM37.26 million previously.

The ACE Market volume decreased slightly to 494.11 million shares valued at RM173.01 million from 496.25 million shares valued at RM204.30 million on Wednesday.

Consumer products and services counters accounted for 410.31 million shares traded on the Main Market, industrial products and services (463.43 million); construction (102.82 million); technology (154.02 million); SPAC (nil); financial services (124.07 million); property (305.90 million); plantation (33.16 million); REITs (10.25 million), closed/fund (66,200); energy (92.53 million); healthcare (71.03 million); telecommunications and media (41.28 million); transportation and logistics (37.62 million); and utilities (82.20 million). — Bernama