KUALA LUMPUR: Bursa Malaysia finished lower on Tuesday with over 600 counters ending in the red, in line with the weak sentiment in regional markets.
The FBM KLCI closed 13.89 points, or 0.93% lower at 1,485.50, its lowest in three weeks.
Dealers said investors turned cautious ahead of the US Federal Open Market Committee meeting. Investors are waiting to see if the US Federal Reserve will slow the pace of rate hikes.
Market breadth turned negative as losers overpowered the gainers on a ratio of 632-to-326 stocks. Traded volumes stood at 4.03 billion shares valued at RM2.78bil.
In terms of fund flows, local institutions and retailers were net buyers on Monday acquiring equities worth RM10mil and RM39mil respectively.
Foreigners emerged as net sellers with total disposal valued at RM49mil.
Among the losers on Bursa Malaysia, PETRONAS Dagangan shed RM1.08 to RM21.80, Nestle eased 80 sen to RM135.20, PETRONAS Gas fell 78 sen to RM16.82 and Malaysian Pacific Industries
lost 72 sen to RM33.18.
F&N jumped 58 sen to RM24.80, Rapid rose 36 sen to RM16.28, Batu Kawan gained 24 sen to RM22.80 and Heineken added 20 sen to RM28.
Vestland, which made its debut on the ACE Market today, closed up six sen to 39 sen with 352.11 million shares traded.
Meanwhile, the ringgit was quoted at 4.2585, down 0.35% against the US dollar.
Brent crude fell 53 cents to US$84.37 a barrel while US West Texas Intermediate crude was at US$77.21 per barrel, down 69 cents.
Elsewhere in the region, Japan’s Nikkei 225 fell 0.39% to finish at 27,327.11 while South Korea’s Kospi ended down 1.04% at 2,425.08.
Hong Kong’s Hang Seng lost 1.03% to 21,842.33 and China's CSI 300 Index closed down 1.06% at 4,156.86.
