KUALA LUMPUR (May 30): Bursa Malaysia ended at its intraday low on Tuesday (May 30) amid mounting caution ahead of the US debt ceiling bill vote as early as Wednesday.

At the time of writing, optimism that a deal would be struck soon remains. US Congress needs to raise the debt ceiling by June 5 or the country could run out of cash to pay its obligations.

At 5pm, the FTSE Bursa Malaysia KLCI (FBM KLCI) fell 8.02 points to 1,396.91 from 1,404.93 at Monday’s close.

The barometer index opened 1.11 points higher at 1,406.04, which was its intraday high.

The broader market remained negative with decliners beating advancers 466 to 358, while 431 counters were unchanged, 1,009 untraded and 60 others suspended.

Turnover slipped to 2.38 billion units worth RM2.01 billion from 2.73 billion units worth RM1.87 billion on Monday.

An analyst said banking stocks, which recovered some ground earlier, failed to sustain their performance as investors opted to book profit. Other sectors such as healthcare, technology, plantation, and industrial products and services were also in the red during this results season.

Additionally, interest in the local bourse was also affected by Chinese industrial firms slumping in the first four months of 2023, amid a lack of catalysts following the closure of overnight Wall Street on Monday.

China is Malaysia’s largest trading partner.

The analyst added that investors were also awaiting the US May Conference Board (CB) Consumer Confidence to be released later on Tuesday.

CB Consumer Confidence measures the level of consumer confidence in economic activity.

Meanwhile, Rakuten Trade Sdn Bhd equity research vice-president Thong Pak Leng said the FBM KLCI is severely oversold, hence he reckoned barging hunting may set in and expected the benchmark index to stage a rebound anytime soon.

"As such, we anticipate the FBM KLCI to trend within the range of 1,400-1,410 for the remainder of the week," he told Bernama.

Heavyweights Malayan Banking Bhd dropped one sen to RM8.59, Public Bank Bhd was down five sen to RM3.84, Tenaga Nasional Bhd was 13 sen lower at RM9.62, and Petronas Chemicals Group Bhd lost 12 sen to RM6.75.

CelcomDigi Bhd inched up one sen to RM4.57 and CIMB Group Holdings Bhd was flat at RM4.89.

Among the actives, Dagang NeXchange Bhd gained 2.5 sen to 41.5 sen, YTL Corp Bhd gained one sen to 91 sen, Widad Group Bhd added half-a-sen to 43.5 sen, Top Glove Corp Bhd fell five sen to RM1.11, and Bahvest Resources Bhd increased two sen to 22 sen.

On the index board, the FBM Emas Index went down 45.94 points to 10,279.11, the FBMT 100 Index was 48.71 points weaker at 9,982.90 and the FBM Emas Shariah Index declined 55.66 points to 10,654.41.

The FBM 70 Index eased 30.73 points to 13,550.89 while the FBM ACE Index was 3.99 points lower at 4,967.09.

Sector-wise, the Financial Services Index lost 27.98 points to 15,269.30, the Industrial Products and Services Index eased 2.01 points to 162.52, the Plantation Index slid 46.91 points to 6,747.50, while the Energy Index added 13.17 points to 827.04.

The Main Market volume improved to 1.61 billion units valued at RM1.79 billion from 1.53 billion units valued at RM1.45 billion on Monday.

Warrants turnover expanded to 291.34 million units worth RM35.75 million against 274.34 million units worth RM35.30 million.

The ACE Market volume tumbled to 475.20 million shares valued at RM179.17 million from 921.19 million shares valued at RM388.47 million previously.

Consumer products and services counters accounted for 301.46 million shares traded on the Main Market, industrial products and services (275.67 million), construction (46.36 million), technology (236.12 million), SPAC (nil), financial services (79.88 million), property (139.17 million), plantation (26.35 million), REITs (7.26 million), closed/fund (213,500), energy (156.74 million), healthcare (152.57 million), telecommunications and media (59.89 million), transportation and logistics (21.19 million), and utilities (111.77 million).

https://www.theedgemarkets.com/node/669187