KUALA LUMPUR, Sept 15 — Bursa Malaysia has reversed its gains earlier to end broadly lower after a lacklustre trading session, as investors seem reluctant to make more significant moves due to the absence of buying catalysts, said an analyst.

At 5pm, the benchmark FBM KLCI eased by 1.13 points to 1,467.31 from yesterday’s close of 1,468.44.

The benchmark index opened 4.92 points higher at 1,473.36, subsequently moving between 1,466.33 and 1,478.54 throughout the day.

Market breadth was negative with decliners surpassing advancers 415 to 378, while 433 counters were unchanged, 1,125 untraded and 21 others suspended.

Total turnover stood at 2.62 billion units worth RM2.67 billion compared with 2.63 billion units worth RM1.63 billion yesterday.

Meanwhile, Rakuten Trade Sdn Bhd vice-president of Equity Research, Thong Pak Leng said key regional indices were mostly higher following the broadly positive cues from Wall Street overnight, supported by gains in energy stocks on spiking crude oil prices.

"Nonetheless, investors remain cautious amid persisting worries about inflation and tighter policy stance of global central banks,” he told Bernama.

Bursa Malaysia and its subsidiaries will be closed tomorrow, in conjunction with Malaysia Day, and will resume its operation on Monday, September 19, 2022.

At the close, Bursa heavyweights Maybank improved by one sen to RM8.86, Public Bank increased three sen to RM4.47 and IHH Healthcare added 12 sen to RM6.32, while Petronas Chemicals dipped eight sen to RM8.62 and CIMB shrank two sen to RM5.37.

Of the actives, Velesto Energy firmed one sen to 11.5 sen, Top Glove shed two sen to 76.5 sen, while SNS Network, Metronic Global and Dagang NeXchange were flat at 30 sen, two sen and 82.5 sen, respectively.

On the index board, the FBM Emas Index declined 0.62 of-a-point to 10,474.58, the FBMT 100 Index dwindled by 2.35 points to 10,214.65, the FBM Emas Shariah Index decreased 13.97 points to 10,578.82 and the FBM ACE was 11.15 points lower at 4,833.75, while the FBM 70 climbed 19.41 points to 12,727.58.

Sector-wise, the Plantation Index lost 86.92 points to 6,858.12 and the Industrial Products and Services Index eased 0.28 of-a-point to 181.47, while the Energy Index was 18.68 points stronger at 737.62 and the Financial Services Index went up by 7.43 points to 16,491.48.

The Main Market volume rose to 1.73 billion shares worth RM2.35 billion from 1.70 billion shares worth RM1.30 billion yesterday.

Warrants turnover fell to 188.30 million units valued at RM27.73 million from 298.73 million units valued at RM47.18 million previously.

The ACE Market volume climbed to 706.18 million shares worth RM293.68 million from 632.45 million shares worth RM288.92 million yesterday.

Consumer products and services counters accounted for 168.66 million shares traded on the Main Market, industrial products and services (520.46 million), construction (44.66 million), technology (168.23 million), SPAC (nil), financial services (94.58 million), property (137.64 million), plantation (37.63 million), REITs (9.19 million), closed/fund (5,100), energy (300.99 million), healthcare (135.95 million), telecommunications and media (35.86 million), transportation and logistics (50.70 million) and utilities (23.01 million). — Bernama