KUALA LUMPUR (Jan 12): Bursa Malaysia reversed some of its earlier losses to end mixed on Wednesday (Jan 12), driven by late buying support in selected industrial products and services counters led by Petronas Chemicals Group Bhd and Press Metal Aluminium Holdings Bhd, dealers said.

The two counters contributed a combined 2.43 points to the gains in the barometer index, the dealers said.

At 5pm, the benchmark FTSE Bursa Malaysia KLCI (FBM KLCI) however slipped 1.09 points or 0.07% to 1,563.2 from 1,564.29 at Tuesday’s close.

The index opened 0.1 of-a-point higher at 1,564.39 and fluctuated between 1,555.7 and 1,567.35 throughout the trading session.

The overall market breadth was positive with advancers beating decliners 569 to 389, while 404 counters were unchanged, 905 untraded, and 31 others suspended.

Total turnover declined to 3.37 billion units worth RM1.91 billion versus 4.15 billion units valued at RM2.84 billion on Tuesday.

Rakuten Trade Sdn Bhd vice-president of equity research Thong Pak Leng said the FBM KLCI closed lower due to profit-taking mainly on banking stocks.

“Nonetheless, market breadth was positive with 569 gainers over 389 losers. Meanwhile, key regional markets trended mostly higher following overnight gains on Wall Street and downbeat inflation data from China.

“The country's consumer price index (CPI) contracted 0.3% month-on-month while growing 1.5% year-on-year in December,” he told Bernama on Wednesday.

Japan's Nikkei 225 gained 1.92% to 28,765.66, Hong Kong’s Hang Seng Index went up 2.79% to 24,402.17, Singapore’s Straits Times Index added 0.06% to 3,248.47 and South Korea’s Kospi rose 1.54% to 2,972.48.

Back home, Thong said the outlook for the market remained positive despite some profit-taking on banking stocks given the continuous strong foreign inflow and improving market sentiment in the region.

“Hence, we expect the index to hover within the 1,560-1,570 range for the remainder of the week with immediate resistance at 1,570 and support at 1,530,” he added.

Among heavyweights, Malayan Banking Bhd shed nine sen to RM8.41, CIMB Group Holdings Bhd fell six sen to RM5.56, IHH Healthcare Bhd was flat at RM6.65, while Public Bank Bhd added two sen to RM4.25, Petronas Chemicals climbed 10 sen to RM9 and Press Metal gained seven sen to RM6.09.

Of the actives, SMTrack Bhd, Trive Property Group Bhd and Sapura Energy Bhd were flat at 30 sen, 11.5 sen and five sen respectively, while MQ Technology Bhd slipped three sen to 8.5 sen.

On the index board, the FBM Emas Index was 14.49 points firmer at 11,302.06, the FBMT 100 Index improved 7.63 points to 10,994.4, the FBM Emas Shariah Index increased 40.97 points to 12,077.34, while the FBM ACE dipped 34.03 points to 6,582.64, and the FBM 70 climbed 76.24 points to 14,225.25.

Sector-wise, the Financial Services Index lost 82.22 points to 16,094.91, the Industrial Products and Services Index added 1.81 points to 205.32, while the Plantation Index fell 28.7 points to 6,739.92.

The Main Market volume was lower at 2.11 billion shares worth RM1.66 billion compared with 2.52 billion shares worth RM2.5 billion on Tuesday.

Warrants turnover declined to 212.08 million units worth RM27.91 million from 283.05 million units worth RM36.91 million on Tuesday.

The ACE Market volume slid to 1.04 billion shares worth RM217.64 million versus 1.35 billion shares valued at RM303.71 million previously.

Consumer products and services counters accounted for 376.83 million shares traded on the Main Market, industrial products and services (598.62 million), construction (202.75 million), technology (329.22 million), SPAC (nil), financial services (57 million), property (182.56 million), plantation (12.14 million), REITs (8.38 million), closed/fund (17,400), energy (226.90 million), healthcare (43.32 million), telecommunications and media (19.84 million), transportation and logistics (31.31 million), and utilities (20.03 million).