KUALA LUMPUR: Bursa Malaysia ended lower across the board yesterday, tracking the weaker performance of major Asian bourses as investors remained cautious over interest rate hikes, hinted at by the US Federal Reserve policymakers.

Persistent selling in selected trade and services-related heavyweights also weighed on the key FTSE Bursa Malaysia KLCI (FBM KLCI) which finished 3.6 points lower at 1,704.48 as at 5pm.

The index, which opened at 1,709.54 from Wednesday’s close of 1,708.08, hovered between 1,702.54 and 1,710.07 throughout the day.

Market breadth was negative, with losers beating gainers 555 to 328, while 358 counters were unchanged, 479 untraded and 19 others suspended.

Volume, however, rose to 2.79 billion units worth RM2.67 billion from 2.68 billion units worth RM2.78 billion Wednesday.

A dealer said markets are still digesting minutes of the January 31 to February 1 Federal Open Market Committee meeting.

Fed Governor Jerome Powell had signalled that an interest rate increase may come “fairly soon” if the United States economy remained on track.

Regionally, Hong Kong’s Hang Seng fell 87.10 points to 24,114.86, China’s Shanghai Composite shed 9.84 points to 3,251.38 and Japan’s Nikkei 225 gave up 8.41 points to 19,371.46.

Meanwhile, Hong Leong Investment Bank (HLIB) Research said in a note yesterday that the downtrend on Bursa Malaysia was also due to a slight pullback as the FBM KLCI had rallied from the 1,620 level two months ago.

“Both the stochastics and relative strength index (RSI) indicators are suggesting an overbought position on the key index,” it said.

Of the trade and services-linked heavyweights, Axiata, which contributed 4.105 points to the index, lost 27 sen to RM4.53, IHH Healthcare eased five sen to RM6.15 and MISC was six sen lower at RM7.74.

Among actives, RGB slid four sen to 29 sen, Bumi Armada and Hibiscus Petroleum inched down 1.5 sen each to 77.5 sen and 50 sen respectively, and AirAsia X trimmed one sen to 40.5 sen.

The FBM Emas Index eased 23.87 points to 12,022.57, the FBMT100 Index shed 25.14 points to 11,697.66, the FBM 70 gave up 31.52 points to 13,937.36 and the FBM Ace dipped 67.98 points to 5,307.80.

Sector-wise, the Finance Index fell 17.29 points to 15,048.36, but the Plantation Index advanced 19.82 points to 8,052.03 and the Industrial Index was 8.34 points better at 3,292.30.

Main Market turnover fell to 2.22 billion units worth RM2.57 billion against Wednesday’s 2.68 billion units worth RM2.78 billion.

The ACE Market halved to 328.81 million shares valued at RM66.90 million from 607.17 million shares valued at RM127.93.

Warrants also narrowed to 217.06 million units worth RM31.82 million from 221.37 million units worth RM31.57 million.

Consumer products accounted for 109.62 million shares traded on the Main Market, industrial products (353.47 million), construction (145.53 million), trade and services (1.29 billion), technology (74.64 million), infrastructure (11.70 million), SPAC (742,100), finance (66.42 million), hotels (877,000), properties (98.56 million), plantations (40.60 million), mining (52,000), REITs (31.37 million), and closed/fund (58,000). — Bernama