KUALA LUMPUR (Sept 21): Bursa Malaysia ended at an intraday low of 1,447.18, with selling pressure seen across the board, said a dealer.

At 5pm, the benchmark FTSE Bursa Malaysia KLCI (FBM KLCI) declined by 13.92 points compared to Tuesday's close of 1,461.1.

The benchmark index opened 1.65 points lower at 1,459.45, hitting a high of 1,459.89 in early trading.

On the broader market, losers thumped gainers 530 to 296, while 439 counters were unchanged, 1,125 untraded and nine others suspended.

Total turnover rose to 2.34 billion units worth RM1.66 billion compared with 2.12 billion units worth RM1.65 billion on Tuesday.

A dealer said the local bourse remained in the red throughout the day, tracking overnight losses on Wall Street as investors were jittery due to concerns over the US Federal Reserve’s (Fed) interest rate decision later on Wednesday.

Rakuten Trade Sdn Bhd vice-president of Equity Research Thong Pak Leng said key regional indices were also on the downtrend following the broadly negative cues from global markets overnight, with investors widely positioning for a hefty interest rate hike after a hawkish statement from the Fed.

He said the Fed is widely expected to raise interest rates by another 75 basis points (bps), noting that some have predicted a 100bps rate hike following the hotter-than-expected US inflation data last week, and reckoned that the sentiment in the local bourse would remain jittery due to external factors.

“Having said that, we believe bargain hunting may emerge as the cheaper market valuations and the weakened ringgit may seem attractive to foreign funds.

“Hence, we maintain our FBM KLCI target of 1,445-1,470 for the remainder of the week. From the technical point of view, we shall see immediate support at 1,430 and resistance at 1,480," he told Bernama.

Regionally, Japan's Nikkei 225 fell 1.36% to 27,313.13, Hong Kong's Hang Seng Index declined 1.79% to 18,444.62, South Korea’s Kospi slipped 0.87% to 2,347.21, and Shanghai’s SSE Index slid 0.17% to 3,117.18, while Singapore’s Straits Times Index improved 0.01% at 3,267.43.

Back home, Bursa heavyweights Public Bank Bhd shed five sen to RM4.40, Petronas Chemicals Group Bhd fell by nine sen to RM8.61, CIMB Group Holdings Bhd eased three sen to RM5.45, and IHH Healthcare Bhd slid four sen to RM6.10, while Malayan Banking Bhd (Maybank) added three sen to RM8.73.

Of the actives, Top Glove Corp Bhd slipped by six sen to 64.5 sen, and Borneo Oil Bhd slid half-a-sen to 2.5 sen, while Velesto Energy Bhd added one sen to 12.5 sen, SNS Networks Technology Bhd edged up half-a-sen to 27.5 sen, and China Automobile Parts Holdings Ltd was flat at five sen.

On the index board, the FBM Emas Index went down 93.81 points to 10,330.09, the FBMT 100 Index lost 96.12 points to 10,070.63, the FBM Emas Shariah Index dropped 131.54 points to 10,389.89, the FBM 70 decreased 116.6 points to 12,532.55 and the FBM ACE gave up 29.18 points to 4,778.12.

Sector-wise, the Plantation Index contracted 61.72 points to 6,845.82, the Industrial Products and Services Index slid 3.31 points to 175.68 and the Financial Services Index declined 53.84 points to 16,399.85, while the Energy Index was 5.39 points better at 725.58.

The Main Market volume increased to 1.59 billion shares worth RM1.40 billion from 1.42 billion shares worth RM1.42 billion on Monday.

Warrants turnover shrank to 224.96 million units valued at RM34.11 million from 232.78 million units valued at RM31.46 million previously.

The ACE Market volume expanded to 528.82 million shares worth RM227.6 million from 457.46 million shares worth RM192.08 million on Monday.

Consumer products and services counters accounted for 161.96 million shares traded on the Main Market, industrial products and services (518.91 million), construction (27.3 million), technology (81.87 million), SPAC (nil), financial services (56.97 million), property (135.14 million), plantation (16.83 million), REITs (7.87 million), closed/fund (15,000), energy (220.2 million), healthcare (273.82 million), telecommunications and media (19.19 million), transportation and logistics (48.1 million) and utilities (20.03 million).