KUALA LUMPUR: Bursa Malaysia closed in the red on Thursday, in line with the weakness in regional markets as investors remained cautious about the timing and scale of the United States Federal Reserve's rate cut.
At 5pm, FTSE Bursa Malaysia KLCI dropped 0.07 per cent or 1.09 points to 1,604.26 versus Wednesday's close of 1,605.35.
The key index opened at 1,603.21 and moved between 1,602.32 and 1,608.84 throughout the day.
The broader market saw losers led gainers 619 to 577 while 474 counters were unchanged.
On the index board, 0.08 per cent to 11,835.52, FBM Emas shed 0.06 per cent to 12,236.71 and FBM Ace closed unchanged at 5,449.92.
Tradeview Capital fund manager Neoh Jia Man said despite the downtrend, selective buying in certain index components such as Press Metal Aluminium Group Bhd, Genting Malaysia Bhd and Axiata Group Bhd provided support to the local market.
"Since the setup of a data centre by Google will take time to materialse, it does not impact the short-term movement of the local market. In our view, the downtrend observed over the past few days is healthy following the rapid run-up over the past few weeks.
"With the pending release of the US Core PCE Price Index data on Friday night, we expect investors to remain cautious into Friday," he told Business Times.
Investment, Trade and Industry Minister today announced that it had secured a commitment by Google to invest RM9.4 billion (US$2 billion) to house its first Google data centre and Google Cloud region in Malaysia.
This will support 26,500 jobs across various sectors in Malaysia– including in healthcare, education, and finance – with a total economic impact valued at RM15.04 billion (US$3.2 billion)