KUALA LUMPUR, March 8 — Bursa Malaysia closed lower for the third consecutive trading day today on continued selling pressure, with all indices in the negative territory, tracking developments in the Russia-Ukraine crisis, a dealer said.

At 5pm, the FTSE Bursa Malaysia KLCI (FBM KLCI) fell 1.63 per cent or 25.69 points to 1,546.87 from 1,572.56 at yesterday’s close.

The index, which opened 6.11 points weaker at 1,566.45, moved between 1,540.90 and 1,566.84 throughout the trading session.

Overall market breadth was negative with losers beating gainers 794 to 272, while 368 counters were unchanged, 838 untraded, and 11 others suspended

Total turnover fell to 3.96 billion units worth RM3.77 billion against 4.35 billion units worth RM3.75  billion yesterday.

Rakuten Trade Sdn Bhd vice-president of equity research Thong Pak Leng said key regional peers were also in the red, following the broadly negative cues from Wall Street overnight on concerns about the outlook for inflation as crude oil prices surged to a 14-year high, with global benchmark Brent crude at US$130 per barrel.

Back home, he said the FBM KLCI was down again due to heavy selling weighed down by broad-based regional weaknesses.

Japan’s Nikkei 225 slipped 1.71 per cent to 24,790.95, Hong Kong’s Hang Seng Index went down 1.39  per cent to 20,765.87, China’s SSE Composite Index fell 2.35 per cent to 3,293.53, and Singapore’s Straits Times Index declined 1.22 per cent to 3,148.86.

"Nevertheless, we foresee any further dips may attract bargain hunting, hence, we reckon the local index to move at between 1,540 and 1,560 range for the remainder of the week,” he told Bernama.

On a technical perspective, Thong expects the immediate support at 1,520 and resistance at 1,570.

Heavyweights Maybank rose one sen to RM8.80, Public Bank lost one sen to RM4.30, Petronas Chemicals shed 40 sen to RM9.70, Press Metal gave up 31 sen to RM6.79, and IHH Healthcare slid seven sen to RM6.38.

As for the actives, SMTrack slipped 6.5 sen to 10.5 sen, Hibiscus Petroleum decreased three sen to RM1.31, DNeX gained half-a-sen to 93.5 sen, Tawin was flat at 13.5 sen, and MYEG shed 2.0 sen to 89 sen.

On the index board, the FBM ACE dipped 123.68 points to 5,024.94, FBM 70 narrowed 293.23 points to 12,465.30, FBM Emas Index shed 195.51 points to 10,878.32, FBMT 100 Index slid 191.23 points to 10,593.80, and FBM Emas Shariah Index contracted 271.67 points to 11,554.76.

Sector-wise, the Financial Services Index erased 171.35 points to 15,770.37, the Industrial Products and Services Index eased 6.38 points at 203.19, and the Plantation Index declined 111.81 points to 8,250.17.

The Main Market volume shrank to 2.69 billion shares worth RM3.53 billion from 3.10 billion shares worth RM3.49 billion yesterday.

Warrants turnover declined to 415.13 million units worth RM54.08 million compared with 441.50 million units worth RM54.56 million previously.

The ACE Market volume increased to 853.14 million shares valued at RM181.68 million versus 795.77 million shares valued at RM204.82 million yesterday.

Consumer products and services counters accounted for 463.12 million shares traded on the Main Market, industrial products and services (698.55 million), construction (76.60 million), technology (472.77 million), SPAC (nil), financial services (132.12 million), property (204.04 million), plantation (166.75 million), REITs (11.30 million), closed/fund (100,700), energy (282.82 million), healthcare (72.70 million), telecommunications and media (30.42 million), transportation and logistics (41.04 million), and utilities (39.58 million). — Bernama