Bursa reopened after Malaysia Day and digested the Fed. On Thursday, 17 September 2026 the FBM KLCI closed at 1,674.74, down 4.47 points or 0.27% from Tuesday’s 1,679.21. The session was volatile but contained: open 1,677.50, high 1,684.92, low 1,670.75. Breadth stayed negative (465 gainers vs 673 losers). Turnover 3.60 billion shares, value RM3.25 billion.
That is another multi-week low. The index held the 1,670 line Rakuten had flagged, but did not reclaim 1,680 into the close.
Movers and Shakers
Heavyweights
- CIMB –11 sen to RM7.69
- Maybank –6 sen to RM10.36
- Public Bank and Tenaga unchanged at RM4.80 and RM13.32
- IHH –2 sen to RM7.69
Top gainers
- Vitrox +48 sen to RM9.58
- MPI +40 sen to RM40.10
- Nestlé +34 sen to RM90.52
- Petronas Dagangan +30 sen to RM21.08
- Allianz +24 sen to RM21.10
Top losers
- Hong Leong Bank –36 sen to RM23.10
- Petronas Chemicals –34 sen to RM4.86
- F&N –26 sen
- Hong Leong Financial –22 sen
- Bursa Malaysia –18 sen to RM8.07
Most active / story stocks
- Zetrix AI –1 sen to 24.5 sen
- AirAsia –13.5 sen to 50.5 sen; Capital A –4.5 sen to 23 sen after reports the government was talking to rivals about absorbing routes if the group’s finances worsened. Intraday AAGB was hit as much as ~21% on some prints.
- ACE debut Pioneer Heat listed (IPO 25 sen) and finished about 30 sen
- Top Glove softer early; gloves not the tape today.
Policy and global cues (on/before 17 Sep 2026)
Fed (16 Sep, after Malaysia Day close): unanimous +25 bp to 3.75–4.00%, first hike since July 2023. Dots pointed to another hike this year. Chair Warsh sounded tighter than some had hoped. US yields and the dollar jumped; the greenback hit a seven-week high.
Ringgit: weakest in about a month, printed as low as ~4.10 vs the dollar (near a three-month low on some ticks). BNM OPR still 2.75% — the Fed–BNM gap widened again.
Next: Bank of Japan on Friday (markets priced a hike toward a 31-year high). Bank of England also due. Local inflation data was flagged for Friday. Oil/geopolitics still in the background.
Other: Japan–Malaysia US$6bn swap (signed around Malaysia Day) is a medium-term FX backstop, not a same-day bid.
Read-through
A known 25 bp hike did not crash the KLCI — it leaked lower with banks mixed and aviation smashed on a stock-specific headline. 1,670 held. Foreign-sensitive names and the ringgit took more of the Fed than the index itself.
Support: 1,670 then 1,655. Resistance: 1,685–1,690 then 1,700.