KUALA LUMPUR, Sept 19 — Bursa Malaysia ended sharply lower today, weighed down by persistent selling in heavyweight stocks, in tandem with the weakness in most regional peers.

Asian shares took their cue from Wall Street’s losses on Friday amidst concerns about the global economic outlook and monetary policy tightening by central banks around the world, said a dealer.

At 5pm, the benchmark FTSE Bursa Malaysia KLCI (FBM KLCI) fell by 15.79 points to 1,451.52 from Thursday’s close of 1,467.31.

The benchmark index opened 7.80 points lower at 1,459.51, subsequently moving between 1,446.04 and 1,460.91 throughout the session.

On the broader market, losers thumped gainers 706 to 217, while 349 counters were unchanged, 1,101 untraded and 17 others suspended.

Total turnover fell to 2.19 billion units worth RM1.76 billion compared with 2.62 billion units worth RM2.67 billion on Thursday.

Rakuten Trade Sdn Bhd vice-president of Equity Research, Thong Pak Leng said key regional indices also trended lower as investors are wary that the United States Federal Reserve and other central banks might overshoot their policy targets, triggering a global recession.

"As for the local bourse, we reckon the local market would see some headwinds amidst the heightening global volatility. Nonetheless, we believe the accumulation of stocks would persist on dips.

"As such, we expect the FBM KLCI to trade within a wider range of between 1,440 and 1,470 for the week. The support at the 1,470-level has been broken and the next support level will be at 1,430 followed by 1,400, while resistance is at 1,480,” he added.

Regionally, Hong Kong’s Hang Seng Index slipped 1.04 per cent to 18,565.97, Singapore’s Straits Times Index slid 0.36 per cent to 3,256.48, South Korea’s Kospi dropped 1.14 per cent to 2,355.66 and Shanghai’s SSE index eased by 0.35 per cent to 3,115.60.

Back home, Bursa heavyweights Maybank and CIMB Bank gained five sen each to RM8.63 and RM5.42, respectively, while Public Bank shed two sen to RM4.45, Petronas Chemicals slid three sen to RM8.59 and IHH Healthcare fell 16 sen to RM6.16.

Of the actives, Top Glove slipped six sen to 70.5 sen, SNS Network Technology eased half-a-sen to 29.5 sen and Hartalega fell 11 sen to RM1.49, while XOX edged up half-a-sen to two sen and Metronic was flat at two sen.

On the index board, the FBM Emas Index gave up 113.34 points to 10,361.24, the FBMT 100 Index fell 111.20 points to 10,103.45, the FBM Emas Shariah Index decreased 127.35 points to 10,451.47, the FBM 70 dropped 143.69 points to 12,583.89 and the FBM ACE was 74.35 points lower at 4,759.40.

Sector-wise, the Energy Index was 14.14 points easier at 723.48, the Financial Services Index tumbled 121.86 points to 16,369.62 and the Industrial Products and Services Index shed 3.43 points to 178.04, while the Plantation Index added 15.81 points to 6,873.93.

The Main Market volume fell to 1.40 billion shares worth RM1.55 billion from 1.73 billion shares worth RM2.35 billion on Thursday last week.

Warrants turnover rose to 242.78 million units valued at RM29.69 million from 188.30 million units valued at RM27.73 million previously.

The ACE Market volume declined to 536.45 million shares worth RM184.92 million from 706.18 million shares worth RM293.68 million.

Consumer products and services counters accounted for 187.68 million shares traded on the Main Market, industrial products and services (382.64 million), construction (47.59 million), technology (123.78 million), SPAC (nil), financial services (77.77 million), property (120.41 million), plantation (22.87 million), REITs (7.86 million), closed/fund (6,000), energy (153.86 million), healthcare (190.61 million), telecommunications and media (20.94 million), transportation and logistics (53.02 million) and utilities (15.20 million). — Bernama