KUALA LUMPUR, June 21 — The cautious market sentiment resulted in Bursa Malaysia closing lower today in tandem with its regional peers, with its key index down by 1.05 per cent.

At 5pm, the benchmark FTSE Bursa Malaysia KLCI (FBM KLCI) fell 16.81 points to 1,572.24 from Friday’s close of 1,589.05.

The index, which opened 8.54 points easier at 1,580.51 today, fluctuated in the negative territory of between 1,567.84 and 1,580.65 throughout the day.

On the broader market, losers thumped gainers 784 to 309, while 393 counters were unchanged, 711 untraded and 17 others suspended.

Turnover decreased to 6.04 billion units valued at RM2.8 billion from 6.31 billion units worth RM4.77 billion on Friday.

Bank Islam Malaysia Bhd economist Adam Mohamed Rahim said the FBM KLCI index was in a sea of red today, with laggards led by Simple Darby Plantation which fell by 5.7 per cent.

The drop in the local bourse was in line with the performance of regional peers such as Thailand, the Philippines and Indonesia as the United States Federal Reserve’s (US Fed) latest hint of a sooner-than-expected rate hike caused investors to flee from equities and seek refuge in safe-haven assets.

Although Malaysia’s daily tally of Covid-19 cases fell to 4,911 today, the news had not been able to offset the overall jitters caused by the US Fed, he said.

"Meanwhile, Brent crude oil price remained firm above the US$70 per barrel mark which helped to support Petronas-linked counters such as Petronas Gas, which ended higher,” he told Bernama.

At the same time, Bursa Malaysia’s telecommunications and media index rose by 0.7 per cent on news that Axiata, Telenor and Digi have signed an agreement for the proposed Celcom-Digi merger.

Among the heavyweights, Maybank and Public Bank eased two sen each to RM8.18 and RM4.18 respectively, PetChem shed five sen to RM7.95, Tenaga lost 44 sen to RM10.00 due to profit-taking following its recent hike, while IHH erased 10 sen to RM5.76.

Of the actives, both VSolar and MMAG inched down half-a-sen to 1.5 sen and 18 sen, respectively, Industronics gained three sen to 27 sen, while Borneo Oil added half-a-sen to four sen.

On the index board, the FBM Emas Index decreased 112.18 points to 11,472.76, the FBMT 100 Index tumbled 109.02 points to 11,167.31, and the FBM ACE erased 149.09 points to 7,558.61.

The FBM Emas Shariah Index contracted 163.02 points to 12,615.19, while the FBM 70 declined 104.56 points to 14,912.04.

Sector-wise, the Financial Services Index gave up 67.7 points for 15,246.0, the Plantation Index lost 84.23 points to 6,597.32 and the Industrial Products and Services Index shed 2.89 points to 189.12.

Main Market volume slipped to 3.24 billion shares worth RM2.28 billion from 3.27 billion shares worth RM4.13 billion on Friday.

Warrants turnover went up to 318.46 million units valued at RM40.43 million from Friday’s 268.13 million units valued at RM26.98 million.

Volume on the Ace Market dwindled to 2.48 billion shares worth RM477.21 million from 2.77 billion shares valued at RM613.63 million previously.

Consumer products and services accounted for 457.66 million shares traded on the Main Market, industrial products and services (1.03 billion), construction (112.13 million), technology (647.75 million), SPAC (nil), financial services (54.14 million), property (397.59 million), plantation (24.56 million), REITs (4.3 million), closed/fund (8,000), energy (290.28 million), healthcare (50.08 million), telecommunications and media (71.87 million), transportation and logistics (84.98 million) and utilities (15.72 million). — Bernama