KUALA LUMPUR (Dec 12): Bursa Malaysia ended marginally lower on Monday (Dec 12) in tandem with the negative cues from the regional markets' performance amid heightened cautious sentiment, an analyst said.

At 5pm, the benchmark FTSE Bursa Malaysia KLCI (FBM KLCI) fell 2.81 points to 1,474.38 from Friday's closing of 1,477.19.  

The barometer index, which opened 1.58 points lower at 1,475.61 — its intraday high, dropped to as low as 1,468.85 in the morning session and maintained its choppy and narrow-range trading in the afternoon session.

On the broader market, decliners thumped advancers 532 versus 368, while 377 counters were unchanged, 986 untraded, and 12 others suspended.

Turnover declined to 2.52 billion units worth RM1.52 billion from 3.24 billion units worth RM1.94 billion last Friday.

Rakuten Trade Sdn Bhd vice president of equity research Thong Pak Leng said the key regional markets ended mostly lower as investors were anxious ahead of the US Federal Reserve meeting and inflation data this week.

"As for the local bourse, we believe valuations of Malaysian equities remain cheap, hence offering opportunities for investors to bargain hunt for stocks at lower levels.

"We expect the overall outlook in the mid term to be positive due to stronger corporate earnings and improving economic conditions," he told Bernama.

Bursa Malaysia heavyweights Malayan Banking Bhd (Maybank) gained one sen to RM8.70, Public Bank Bhd eased one sen to RM4.40, Petronas Chemicals Group Bhd went down five sen to RM8.48, CIMB Group Holdings Bhd climbed nine sen to RM5.74, and Tenaga Nasional Bhd (TNB) trimmed 13 sen to RM9.20.

Of the actives, Advance Synergy Bhd perked up 1.5 sen to 18 sen, Scope Industries Bhd rose 1.5 sen to 20.5 sen, PT Resources Holdings Bhd gained 2.5 sen to 52 sen, Borneo Oil Bhd was flat at 2.5 sen, while AT Systematization Bhd shed half-a-sen to 1.5 sen, and Ta Win Holdings Bhd dipped half-a-sen to six sen.

On the index board, the FBM Emas Index declined 20.89 points to 10,586.52, the FBMT 100 Index dipped 20.27 points to 10,288.58, and the FBM Emas Shariah Index fell 55.02 points to 10,733.15.

The FBM 70 slid 27.95 points to 12,918.27, and the FBM ACE trimmed 23.86 points to 5,493.64.  

Sector-wise, the Financial Services Index rose 44.79 points to 16,539.83, the Plantation Index went up 24.61 points to 6,752.49, the Energy Index perked up 0.56 of-a-point to 778.46, while the Industrial Products and Services Index eased 0.16 of-a-point to 181.43.

The Main Market volume dwindled to 1.40 billion shares worth RM1.18 billion from last Friday's 2.05 billion shares worth RM1.51 billion.

Warrants turnover decreased to 324.57 million units valued at RM60.57 million from 375.28 million units valued at RM81.72 million last Friday.

The ACE Market volume dropped slightly to 800.79 million shares worth RM273.90 million from 818.50 million shares worth RM345.30 million previously.

Consumer products and services counters accounted for 355.34 million shares traded on the Main Market, industrial products and services (449.29 million), construction (44.99 million), technology (133.70 million), SPAC (nil), financial services (74.67 million), property (77.11 million), plantation (18.14 million), REITs (5.08 million), closed/fund (17,500), energy (103.25 million), healthcare (52.40 million), telecommunications and media (17.96 million), transportation and logistics (53.35 million), and utilities (11.61 million).