KUALA LUMPUR, Nov 20 — Bursa Malaysia extended its downtrend to end marginally lower today in the absence of buying interest amid a mixed performance in the regional markets.

At 5pm, the FTSE Bursa Malaysia KLCI (FBM KLCI) fell 3.75 points to 1,456.92 from Friday’s closing of 1,460.67.

The index opened 0.41 of-a-point point easier at 1,460.26 — its intraday high — and moved to an intraday low of 1,454.12 in the morning session.

The market breadth was negative with decliners outpacing gainers at 499 versus 395, while 457 counters were unchanged, 1,023 untraded and nine others suspended.

Turnover narrowed to 3.23 billion units valued at RM1.70 billion from 3.27 billion units valued at RM1.89 billion on Friday.

Rakuten Trade equity research vice-president Thong Pak Leng said regional markets trended mixed as investors are cautious ahead of the minutes of the US Federal Reserve’s late-October meeting, due on Tuesday.

On the domestic front, he said investors remain cautious to make significant moves, given the absence of compelling buying incentives surrounding the current market sentiment, which is heightened by global market risks and volatility.

"Nevertheless, bargain hunting may come into play due to the benchmark index's inexpensive valuations,” he told Bernama.

Among the heavyweight counters, Maybank eased one sen to RM9.11, Public Bank and Petronas Chemicals lost two sen to RM4.21 and RM7.20 respectively, CIMB fell three sen to RM5.77 while Tenaga Nasional rose one sen to RM9.97.

Of the actives, Hong Seng gave up half-a-sen to three sen, LeForm inched up half-a-sen to 29 sen, Top Glove added 1.5 sen to 80 sen, Sarawak Consolidated gained one sen to 65 sen and Widad was unchanged at 46 sen.

On the index board, the FBM Emas Index dropped 9.86 points to 10,790.12, the FBMT 100 Index slipped 13.20 points to 10,449.30, and the FBM Emas Shariah Index declined 2.93 points to 11,001.81.

Meanwhile, the FBM ACE Index rose 23.31 points to 5,195.25 and the FBM 70 Index gained 41.35 points to 14,343.43.

Sector-wise, the Financial Services Index slid 23.37 points to 16,359.27, the Plantation Index slipped 20.74 points to 6,986.00, and the Industrial Products and Services Index trimmed 0.34 of-a-point to 173.58, while the Energy Index edged up 8.01 points to 860.51.

The Main Market volume trimmed to 2.15 billion units worth RM1.41 billion from 2.25 billion units worth RM1.63 billion last Friday.

Warrant turnover dropped to 451.48 million units valued at RM70.87 million against 473.43 million units valued at RM66.04 million previously.

The ACE Market volume widened to 629.63 million shares worth RM220.28 million from 544.01 million shares worth RM197.15 million last week.

Consumer products and services counters accounted for 269.97 million shares traded on the Main Market, industrial products and services (396.01 million); construction (71.33 million); technology (691.83 million); SPAC (nil); financial services (44.16 million); property (183.57 million); plantation (23.97 million); REITs (4.86 million), closed/fund (31,600); energy (128.48 million); healthcare (165.21 million); telecommunications and media (28.25 million); transportation and logistics (54.24 million); and utilities (83.90 million). — Bernama