KUALA LUMPUR, Feb 27 — Bursa Malaysia ended a choppy session slightly lower as the rally in banking stocks helped to offset losses in the barometer index, amid the downbeat performance in regional peers.

At 5 pm, the benchmark FTSE Bursa Malaysia KLCI (FBM KLCI) lost 1.30 points to 1,455.50 from Friday’s closing of 1,456.80.

The index opened 0.76 of-a-point lower at 1,456.04 and moved in a tight range between 1,447.55 and 1,458.18.

Market breadth remained negative with decliners leading advancers 532 to 338, while 425 counters were unchanged, 946 untraded and 70 others suspended.

Turnover decreased to 3.09 billion units worth RM2.19 billion from Friday’s 3.43 billion units worth RM2.58 billion.

Rakuten Trade Sdn Bhd vice-president of equity research Thong Pak Leng said regional equities were also lower on negative cues from Wall Street on Friday as concerns about inflation heightened following the release of a higher-than-expected US personal consumption expenditure price index that may force the Federal Reserve (Fed) to maintain a high interest regime longer than anticipated.

‘’This has put fears in financial markets in that the Fed could continue raising interest rates through mid-year,’’ he told Bernama.

Following the trend, the FBM KLCI moved within a narrow range as investors were unwilling to make significant movement amid the negative market sentiment globally.

‘’We believe the market undertone will remain cautious amid the weak global performance although bargain-hunting activities may prevail,’’ he added.

Nonetheless, he said buying support from foreign funds had been rather apparent, hence, he reckoned that the index could show a slightly more positive performance and hover between at the 1,450-1,470 range for the week.

Among heavyweights, Press Metal lost five sen to RM5.15, IHH was 11 sen lower at RM5.81, Tenaga Nasional slipped eight sen to RM9.64, and Digi.Com lost five sen to RM4.30.

Meanwhile, CIMB advanced seven sen to RM5.54, RHB Bank increased 13 sen to RM5.61, and Public Bank rose two sen to RM4.15, while Hong Leong Bank Bhd climbed 16 sen to RM20.42.

As for active stocks, Borneo Oil, Zen Tech International and Velesto were flat at 2.0 sen, 2.5 sen and 27.5 sen, respectively, MyEG was down 1.5 sen to 72 sen, and SMRT Holdings put on 7.0 sen to 38 sen.

On the index board, the FBM Emas Index gave up 21.19 points to 10,605.25, the FBMT 100 Index slipped 19.68 points to 10,278.14, the FBM ACE Index fell 23.34 points to 5,536.71, the FBM Emas Shariah Index went down 70.57 points to 10,860.02, and the FBM 70 Index slid 70.72 points to 13,434.49.

Sector-wise, the Financial Services Index jumped 109.19 points to 16,131.02, the Energy Index shed 0.90 of-a-point to 889.94, the Plantation Index dropped 22.89 points to 6,769.44, and the Industrial Products and Services Index eased 1.60 points to 178.06.

The Main Market volume dwindled to 1.89 billion shares worth RM1.85 billion from Friday’s 2.27 billion shares worth RM2.17 billion.

Warrants turnover narrowed to 335.38 million units worth RM50.88 million from 387.71 million units worth RM53.97 million.

The ACE Market volume, however, expanded to 808.61 million shares worth RM283.14 million from 729.15 million shares worth RM354.10 million previously.

Consumer products and services counters accounted for 240.77 million shares traded on the Main Market, industrial products and services (629.63 million); construction (82.46 million); technology (281.88 million); SPAC (nil), financial services (73.56 million); property (94.30 million); plantation (39.92 million); REITs (7.73 million), closed/fund (1,300); energy (245.03 million); healthcare (77.75 million); telecommunications and media (25.10 million); transportation and logistics (62.28 million); and utilities (27.34 million). — Bernama