KUALA LUMPUR, Feb 5 — Bursa Malaysia ended lower today, extending its mild pullback as negative global sentiment weighed on risk appetite, said an economist.

At 5pm, the FTSE Bursa Malaysia KLCI (FBM KLCI) eased 11.80 points, or 0.68 per cent, to 1,731.02 from yesterday’s close of 1,742.82. 

The market bellwether opened 3.0 points higher at 1,745.82, and subsequently hit an intraday high of 1,747.18 in early trade before slipping to its intraday low of 1,731.02 at closing.

In the broader market, losers trounced gainers 922 to 279, with 472 counters unchanged, 981 counters untraded and 15 suspended.

Turnover expanded to 3.83 billion units valued at RM3.66 billion from yesterday’s 2.59 billion units valued at RM2.86 billion.  

IPPFA Sdn Bhd director of investment strategy and country economist Mohd Sedek Jantan said the local market’s decline was largely driven by external spillovers, particularly weakness across regional equity markets, as investors continued to reassess valuation risks in technology and artificial intelligence-linked names.

“Locally, this translated into broad-based sector rotation and profit-taking following the index’s recent rally, with selling pressure evident across utilities, industrial-related names, healthcare, construction and energy, while financials were comparatively resilient.

“Pockets of strength in real estate and selected yield-oriented counters provided limited support, underscoring a rebalancing of positions rather than an outright risk-off move,” he told Bernama. 

In addition, he said from a technical perspective, the FBM KLCI remains supported above the 1,730 zone, which has emerged as a near-term psychological and technical anchor.

“Despite today’s pullback, the index continues to trade comfortably above its key moving averages, signalling that the broader uptrend remains intact.

“Momentum indicators have moderated after a strong advance, consistent with a consolidation phase rather than a trend reversal,” he said.

Among heavyweights, CIMB perked up 2.0 sen to RM8.52, Public Bank slid 1.0 sen to RM4.90, Tenaga Nasional shed 12 sen to RM13.98, IHH Healthcare fell 19 sen to RM8.77, while Maybank was flat at RM11.94. 

On the most active list, Zetrix AI slipped 10.5 sen to 69.5 sen, Pharmaniaga edged down 3.5 sen to 29 sen, Capital A decreased 2.0 sen to 57.5 sen, while MMAG and Tanco were flat at 5.0 sen and RM1.34, respectively. 

Among the top gainers, Nestle advanced RM1.10 to RM113.00, Petronas Dagangan added 40 sen to RM20.36, Southern Acids rose 16 sen to RM3.50, and Batu Kawan added 12 sen each to RM19.62.

Fraser & Neave led the decliners, falling RM1.48 sen to RM33.88, Malaysian Pacific Industries slid 50 sen to RM32.00, United Plantations slipped 82 sen to RM28.98, Petronas Gas lost 40 sen to RM18.10, and Hong Leong Industries shed 26 sen to RM16.78.

On the index board, the FBM Top 100 Index fell 100.66 points to 12,471.95, the FBM Emas Index slumped 109.29 points to 12,644.42, the FBM Emas Shariah Index weakened 160.68 points to 12,125.32, the FBM ACE Index slid 61.80 points to 4,634.35, and the FBM Mid 70 Index tumbled 210.37 points to 17,298.51.

Sector-wise, the Financial Services Index shrank 8.27 points to 21,474.04, the Industrial Products and Services Index shed 2.05 points to 174.53, the Plantation Index slipped 42.57 points to 8,342.38, and the Energy Index trimmed 15.26 points to 740.65. 

The Main Market volume increased to 2.28 billion units worth RM3.32 billion from Wednesday’s 1.53 billion units worth RM2.65 billion.

Warrants turnover jumped to 1.07 billion units worth RM1.33 billion from 650.30 million units worth RM81.10 million previously.

The ACE Market volume swelled to 482.17 million units worth RM204.19 million from 409.26 million units worth RM121.48 million yesterday.

Consumer products and services counters accounted for 296.79 million shares traded on the Main Market, industrial products and services (281.20 million), construction (190.34 million), technology (529.01 million), financial services (99.19 million), property (236.51 million), plantation (38.38 million), real estate investment trusts (23.89 million), closed-end fund (23,000), energy (137.11 million), healthcare (291.54 million), telecommunications and media (37.09 million), transportation and logistics (74.27 million), utilities (43.04 million), and business trusts (281,200). — Bernama