KUALA LUMPUR: Bursa Malaysia closed lower on Thursday for the second consecutive day as selling pressure persisted, mainly in telecommunication and commodity-related stocks, amid a mixed regional performance.

At 5 pm, the FTSE Bursa Malaysia KLCI (FBM KLCI) fell 4.01 points, or 0.29 per cent to 1,374.64 from 1,378.65 at Wednesday's close.

The key index opened 2.86 points lower at 1,375.79 this morning and moved between 1,369.41 and 1,376.62 throughout the session.

The market breadth was negative as decliners led gainers by 487 to 300, while 433 counters were unchanged, 1,023 untraded, and 21 others suspended.

Turnover shrank to 2.68 billion units worth RM1.61 billion versus 3.12 billion units worth RM1.73 billion on Wednesday.

Rakuten Trade Sdn Bhd equity research vice-president Thong Pak Leng said the local bourse's performance was in line with the mostly lower regional market performance following negative cues from Wall Street overnight. He said investors were worried that US interest rates could stay higher for longer and that the US Federal Reserve (Fed) could remain hawkish when it meets next week.

"As for the local bourse, we believe the short-term sentiment will continue to be volatile, influenced by a range of internal and external factors.

"Nonetheless, there is a possibility of bargain-hunting as the benchmark index remains in oversold territory," he told Bernama. Thong is anticipating that the FBM KLCI would trend sideways in the region of 1,373-1,385 towards the weekend.

Among the heavyweight stocks, Maybank added two sen to RM8.60, Petronas Chemicals gained one sen to RM6.42 and Tenaga Nasional dropped 15 sen to RM9.12. Public Bank and CIMB were flat at RM3.81 and RM4.90, respectively.

Of the actives, Sarawak Consolidated edged up half-a-sen to 28 sen while Dagang NeXchange and RGB International ticked up one sen to 49 sen and 27 sen, respectively.

Star Media was down by three sen to 47 sen and Widad Group was flat at 42.5 sen.

On the index board, the FBM Emas Index trimmed 37.69 points to 10,124.28, the FBMT 100 Index was 35.78 points weaker at 9,826.45 and the FBM Emas Shariah Index erased 79.50 points to 10,450.23.

The FBM ACE Index shed 54.56 points to 4,971.14, and FBM 70 Index fell 78.00 points to 13,349.77.

Sector-wise, the Industrial Products and Services Index slipped 1.21 points to 157.68, the Plantation Index shrank 17.04 points to 6,645.00 and the Energy Index eased 4.41 points to 778.81.

However, the Financial Services Index improved 26.71 points to 15,119.53.

The Main Market volume narrowed to 1.74 billion units valued at RM1.37 billion from two billion units worth RM1.43 billion on Wednesday.

Warrant turnover slipped to 294.33 million units worth RM43.74 million against 372.23 million units worth RM49.66 million previously.

The ACE Market volume reduced to 646.14 million shares valued at RM202.85 million from 744.47 million worth RM248.68 million yesterday.

Consumer products and services counters accounted for 327.41 million shares traded on the Main Market, industrial products and services (505.92 million); construction (64.61 million); technology (194.17 million); SPAC (nil); financial services (54.92 million); property (182.54 million); plantation (25.09 million); REITs (6.48 million), closed/fund (6,000); energy (144.57 million); healthcare (64.34 million); telecommunications and media (86.83 million); transportation and logistics (22.08 million); and utilities (60.48 million).