KUALA LUMPUR: Bursa Malaysia started Tuesday morning with a decline as Wall Street also retreated, with traders holding off after an impressive rise propelled by the continuous enthusiasm surrounding artificial intelligence (AI) investments.
At 9:30 am, the FTSE Bursa Malaysia KLCI (FBM KLCI) fell to 1,530.86, down by 8.41 points from the previous day's close of 1,539.27.
In the broader market, there were 330 decliners, 194 gainers, and 345 stocks that remained unchanged.
The focus currently is on the Federal Reserve's upcoming policy updates, which will take place over the course of the next two days and are intended to gauge the trajectory of interest rates, according to Thong Pak Leng, vice president of stock research at Rakuten Trade Sdn Bhd.
"At home, the FBM KLCI closed above water, attributed to last minute buying activities after a solid performance during the morning session.
"We see the market undertone has turned cautious with investors looking for fresh leads; hence, expect the index to hover within the 1,545–1,555 range today as daily volume shrank to the 3 billion share level," he noted.
Globally, Thong observed a 97-point decrease in the Dow Jones Industrial Average (DJI) and a 67-point drop in the Nasdaq, coinciding with a slight increase in the US 10-year yield to 4.21 per cent.
"In Hong Kong, the Hang Seng Index (HSI) ended off the day's low as focus moved to China's annual legislative session today to determine the government's budgets to tackle the sluggish Chinese economy," he added.