KUALA LUMPUR: Bursa Malaysia ended flat today on last-minute selling ahead of the tabling of Budget 2023 tomorrow, an analyst said.
At 5 pm, the benchmark index fell 0.12 points, or 0.01 per cent, to 1,420.43 from Wednesday's close of 1,420.55.
It opened 4.2 points better at 1,424.75 and moved to a high of 1,428.13 at midmorning.
However, market breadth was positive with gainers outpacing decliners 435 to 328, while 427 counters were unchanged, 1,157 untraded, and seven others suspended.
Turnover stood at 2.25 billion units worth RM1.59 billion.
Rakuten Trade Sdn Bhd vice-president of equity research Thong Pak Leng said the FBM KLCI closed in negative territory as profit-taking emerged in the final minutes of the trading session.
Regionally, key indices closed broadly higher as investors continued to pick up battered stocks at a bargain following a brutal selldown since mid-September.
"Despite the improvement in the regional market sentiment, we prefer to stay cautious as we reckon market volatility to heighten going forward, thus expect the local market to encounter wilder swings although the benchmark index remains in an oversold position," he told Bernama.
Thong expects the FBM KLCI to trade range-bound and hover at the 1,410-1,430 range towards the weekend.
From a technical view, immediate resistance is seen at 1,430 points, followed by 1,460, while support is at 1,400, followed by 1,380.
Among Bursa heavyweight counters, Maybank shed three sen to RM8.67, Petronas Chemicals eased one sen to RM8.64, and IHH Healthcare slid four sen to RM5.81. Public Bank and CIMB were flat at RM4.25 and RM5.26, respectively.
Of the actives, ACE Market debutant Cosmos Technology International surged 21 sen to 56 sen, Top Glove improved 3.5 sen to 67.5 sen, and MY E.G. edged up three sen to 90.5 sen. MMAG Holdings was flat at 2.5 sen and TWL Holdings went down by half-a-sen to four sen.