KUALA LUMPUR (April 5): The FBM KLCI ended down 3.26 points or 0.2% today at 1,641.81 on foreign selling.

At 5pm, the KLCI settled at 1,641.81 after trading entirely in negative territory today. The KLCI was traded between its intraday high and low at 1,645.09 and 1,640.3 respectively.

JF Apex Securities Bhd senior analyst Lee Cherng Wee said foreign selling pushed the KLCI into the red today as local sentiment remained tepid amid a lack of fresh catalysts.

“The KLCI had grossly underperformed its regional peers for the last two weeks as opposed to Asia and US markets which have been enjoying rallies lately,” Lee said.

Turnover across Bursa Malaysia was 2.65 billion shares valued at RM1.58 billion.

Top decliners included KLCI stocks Maxis Bhd and Public Bank Bhd. Maxis closed down 11 sen at RM5.49 while Public Bank declined 10 sen to RM22.88.

Across Asian stock indices today, Japan’s Nikkei 225 closed up 0.38% while South Korea’s Kospi gained 0.14%. China markets are closed today in conjunction with the Ching Ming festival holiday as global investors continue to take cue from China-US trade talks.

Reuters reported that cautious optimism over Sino-US trade talks underpinned global stocks on Friday, benchmark bond yields ground higher and the dollar reached a three-week high against the yen before US job data.

It was reported that US President Donald Trump said on Thursday a trade deal with China might be announced within four weeks, although he warned that it would be difficult to allow trade to continue without an agreement. Chinese President Xi Jinping reportedly said progress was being made and called for an early conclusion of talks.