KUALA LUMPUR: Bursa Malaysia ended lower yesterday with the key index moving in a narrow range, while buying activities were seen mainly in energy, construction, and transportation stocks.

At 5pm, the benchmark FTSE Bursa Malaysia KLCI (FBM KLCI) dipped 10.24 points or 0.69 per cent to 1,471.56 from Friday’s closing of 1,481.80.

The market barometer opened 0.28 of-a-point higher at 1,482.08, and moved between 1,470.33 and 1,482.08 throughout the day.

However, market breadth was positive with gainers outpacing losers 524 to 486, while 392 counters were unchanged, 839 untraded, and nine others suspended.

Turnover increased to 3.99 billion units worth RM2.07 billion from last Friday’s 3.35 billion units worth RM2.28 billion.

Rakuten Trade Sdn Bhd vicepresident of equity research Thong Pak Leng said the FBM KLCI closed in negative territory yesterday as investors shifted their buying interests to smaller cap stocks.

“We believe the selldown today and last Friday provides more (opportunities for) upsides for investors, hence, we reckon bargain hunting may prevail anytime soon.

“We anticipate the index to trend within the 1,470-1,500 range,” he told Bernama.

Meanwhile, the key regional indices were mostly higher on the reopening of the economy in China after a prolonged Covid19 lockdown as the Chinese government scaled back Covid-19 restrictions in more cities.

Region-wise, Singapore’s Straits Times Index gained 0.26 per cent to 3,267.54, Japan’s Nikkei 225 Index went up 0.15 per cent to 27,820.40, Hong Kong’s Hang Seng Index surged 4.51 per cent to 19,518.29, while China’s SSE Composite Index rose 1.76 per cent to 3,211.81.

Among Bursa Malaysia heavyweights, Public Bank rose three sen to RM4.44, IHH Healthcare climbed two sen to RM5.85, Maybank and CIMB were flat at RM8.58 and RM5.64, respectively, Petronas Chemicals eased two sen RM8.50 and TNB fell 31 sen to RM9.07.

Of the actives, MQ Technology and SMTrack advanced 1.5 sen each to seven sen and eight sen respectively, Dataprep jumped 10.5 sen to 27.5 sen, Icon Offshore edged up half-a-sen 16 sen, while Borneo Oil and Advance Synergy were flat at two sen and 19 sen respectively.

On the index board, the FBM Emas Index decreased 66.51 points to 10,586.69, the FBMT 100 Index fell 78.02 points to 10,279.13, while the FBM Emas Shariah Index dipped 110.46 points to 10,767.45, the FBM 70 declined 124.02 points to 12,947.17, while the FBM ACE garnered 57.28 points to 5,423.17.

Sector-wise, the Financial Services Index inched down 0.57 of-a-point to 16,445.85 and the Industrial Products and Services Index shed 0.26 of-a-point to 181.56.