KUALA LUMPUR, Sept 10 — Bursa Malaysia bucked the regional market trend to end the week lower on the selling of selected heavyweights such as KL Kepong, Hong Leong Financial Group, and Nestle.

At 5pm, the barometer index retreated 2.92 points to finish at 1,575.97 from yesterday’s close of 1,578.89.

After opening 2.75 points lower at 1,576.14, the FBM KLCI moved between 1,572.61 and 1,583.84 today.

However, on the broader market, gainers led decliners 498 to 466, while 485 counters were unchanged, 798 untraded, and six others suspended.

Turnover was higher at 4.40 billion units worth RM2.75 billion compared with 4.18 billion units worth RM2.92 billion yesterday.

Rakuten Trade Sdn Bhd vice-president of equity research Thong Pak Leng said the Malaysian stock market ended mixed in a lacklustre trading day, with the FBMKLCI falling marginally by 0.18 per cent due to the absence of buying catalysts.

"We believe valuations of Malaysian stocks are still cheap compared to regional markets and will be a major attraction for foreign funds,” he told Bernama.

The FBMKLCI went up initially in the morning session to as high as 1,583.84 points but settled the day lower at 1575.97 points.

"Data such as Malaysia’s industrial production index (IPI) coming in lower by 5.2 per cent in July suggests that the economy is still affected by the movement control order,” said Bank Islam chief economist Mohd Afzanizam Abdul Rashid. "Overnight reports on US initial jobless claims which fell to 310,000 as of Sept 4 against an expectation of 334,000 would complicate the assessment of the labour market in particular as to how it would steer the Federal Reserve’s decision on tapering of asset purchases.”

Regionally, Japan’s Nikkei 225 rose 1.25 per cent to 30,381.84, Hong Kong’s Hang Seng Index increased 1.91 per cent to 26,205.91, South Korea’s Kospi gained 0.36 per cent to 3,125.76 and Singapore’s Straits Times Index advanced 1.00 per cent to 3,102.54.

Back home, heavyweights Maybank rose three sen to RM8.29, Petronas Chemicals bagged 10 sen to RM7.95, Tenaga Nasional added four sen to RM10.30, Press Metal Aluminium increased six sen to RM5.87 and Public Bank was flat at RM4.10.

Among the top decliners were Kluang Rubber, which fell 34 sen to RM4.13, Nestle dropped 30 sen to RM134.70, Sungei Bagan Rubber eased 26 sen to RM3.91 and KL Kepong fell 22 sen to RM20.98.

Of the actives, KNM Group strengthened four sen to 30 sen, Avillion gained 1.5 sen to 15 sen, and Lambo Group reduced three sen to 7.5 sen.

On the index board, the FBM Emas Index fell 11.72 points to 11,522.81, the FBMT 100 Index was 19.35 points lower at 11,212.32, and the FBM Emas Shariah Index dropped 26.34 points to 12,614.20.

The FBM 70 dropped 20.38 points to 15,044.11 but the FBM ACE rose 61.54 points to 7,255.10.

Sector-wise, the Plantation Index shed 49.49 points to 6,604.22, the Financial Services Index increased 1.26 points to 15,390.17, and the Industrial Products and Services Index eased 0.05 of-a-point to 200.90.

The Main Market volume inched down to 2.64 billion shares worth RM2.40 billion from yesterday’s 2.69 billion shares worth RM2.62 billion.

Warrants turnover fell to 379.11 million units valued at RM57.44 million compared to 395.47 million units valued at RM62.95 million previously.

Volume on the ACE Market expanded 1.32 billion shares worth RM286.80 million from 1.09 billion shares worth RM236.47 million yesterday.    

Consumer products and services accounted for 445.39 million shares traded on the Main Market, industrial products and services (770.65 million), construction (117.70 million), technology (254.92 million), SPAC (nil), financial services (41.42 million), property (307.76 million), plantation (39.92 million), REITs (5.33 million), closed/fund (nil), energy (443.72 million), healthcare (145.63 million), telecommunications and media (21.01 million), transportation and logistics (38.63 million) and utilities (11.01 million). — Bernama