KUALA LUMPUR, Feb 23 — Bursa Malaysia ended lower today amid cautious market sentiment ahead of the re-tabling of Budget 2023 tomorrow.

At 5pm, the benchmark FTSE Bursa Malaysia KLCI (FBM KLCI) fell 6.35 points or 0.43 per cent to end at 1,457.65 from Wednesday's close of 1,464.0.

The index opened 0.58 of-a-point firmer at 1,464.58 and moved between 1,456.30 and 1,467.63 throughout the trading day.

On the broader market, advancers outpaced decliners 479 to 408, while 421 counters were unchanged, 927 untraded and 12 others suspended.

Turnover decreased to 3.33 billion units worth RM2.25 billion from Wednesday's 3.51 billion units worth RM2.07 billion.

Rakuten Trade Sdn Bhd vice-president of equity research Thong Pak Leng told Bernama that the sell-down over the past few days would provide sufficient upside for investors as the valuation of the benchmark index becomes more attractive on the back of improving local economic condition.

"Hence, we expect profit-taking to prevail and anticipate the FBM KLCI to trend higher within the range of between 1,460-1,475 towards the weekend,” he said.

Bursa Malaysia heavyweights Maybank gained three sen to RM8.69, CIMB and TNB were flat at RM5.47 and RM9.65, respectively, Public Bank eased one sen to RM4.12, Petronas Chemicals slipped 40 sen to RM7.80, and IHH Healthcare dipped 10 sen to RM5.89.

As for active stocks, Dagang NeXchange rose 2.5 sen to 64.5 sen, MY EG advanced 3.5 sen to 68.5 sen, Sapura Energy and Velesto were flat at 4.5 sen and 24 sen, respectively, Hong Seng trimmed 3.5 sen to 15 sen, and Zen Tech inched down half-a-sen to three sen.

On the index board, the FBM Emas Index slid 25.53 points to 10,613.68, the FBMT 100 Index fell 29.56 points to 10,286.46, the FBM Emas Shariah Index trimmed 37.33 points to 10,931.72, the FBM 70 Index widened 26.82 points to 13,415.68, and the FBM ACE Index climbed 78.58 points to 5,559.17.

Sector-wise, the Financial Services Index was down by 26.40 points to 15,969.07, the Plantation Index decreased 26.65 points to 6,806.36, the Energy Index added 2.44 points to 864.44, and the Industrial Products and Services Index eased 1.73 points to 184.30.

The Main Market volume declined to 2.21 billion shares worth RM1.91 billion from Wednesday's 2.29 billion shares worth RM1.73 billion.

Warrants turnover dwindled to 327.79 million units worth RM51.70 million from 364.31 million units worth RM65.77 million yesterday.

The ACE Market volume shrank to 735.91 million shares worth RM290.60 million from 749.65 million shares worth RM271.48 million previously.

Consumer products and services counters accounted for 263.42 million shares traded on the Main Market, industrial products and services (447.89 million); construction (118.85 million); technology (714.06 million); SPAC (nil), financial services (57.50 million); property (172.46 million); plantation (44.19 million); REITs (9.45 million), closed/fund (15,000); energy (230.92 million); healthcare (87.44 million); telecommunications and media (25.49 million); transportation and logistics (29.76 million); and utilities (12.56 million). — Bernama