Bursa Malaysia up on bargain-hunting
KUALA LUMPUR: Bursa Malaysia finished higher today on bargain-hunting in blue-chips and the finance counters, a dealer said.
Malayan Banking, which contributed 9.87 points to the market barometer, FTSE Bursa Malaysia KLCI, edged up four sen to RM9.64, CIMB, (5.56 points to the index), rose nine sen to RM6.42 and Public Bank (7.67 points to the index) was flat at RM20.36.
At 5pm, the FTSE Bursa Malaysia KLCI, which opened lower today, finished at 1,757.27, up 2.35 points after moving between 1,753.74 and 1,760.82 throughout the day.
The index opened 1.18 points weaker at 1,753.74 at 9 am from Tuesday's close of 1,754.92.
Market breadth improved with winners outpacing losers by 460 to 391, with 387 counters unchanged, 565 untraded and 21 others suspended.
Total volume rose to 2.17 billion shares worth RM2.29 from 2.16 billion shares worth RM2.22 billion yesterday.
Inter-Pacific Securities Head of Research, Pong Teng Siew, said market confidence was slowly building up after the long break for Hari Raya Aidilfitri celebrations as seen in the higher market volumes and values.
"The market was generally slow during the long break (Hari Raya) and I must say that it was also affected by the Lotte Chemical Titan Holding Bhd's initial public offering, which traders viewed that institutional investors are not very keen in buying the stock.
"Investors stayed away for a while. However, confidence is coming back. This, coupled with the positive regional markets, have helped the local bourse to perform better," he said.
Among index-linked counters, Genting added seven sen to RM5.82, IHH advanced four sen to RM4.72 while Axiata and PChem increased three sen each to RM4.68 and RM6.94, respectively.
Of the actives, Ideal Jacobs added half-a-sen to 51.5 sen, FPGroup and Inari both were four sen better at 88.5 sen and RM2.48, respectively while Prestariang eased 19 sen to RM2.19.
The FBM Emas Index improved by 16.93 points to 12,534.47, FBM Emas Syariah Index increased by 18.31 points to 12,728.35 and the FBMT 100 Index advanced by 17.92 points to 12,176.03.
The FBM 70 was up 28.15 points to 14,946.86. The FBM Ace, however, fell by 21.19 points to 6,801.56.
Sector wise, the Industrial Index added 2.57 points to 3,269.31, Plantation Index rose 8.56 points to 7,872.89 and the Finance Index added 37.60 points to 16,696.56.
The Main Market turnover slipped to 1.43 billion shares worth RM2.13 billion from 1.51 billion shares worth RM2.07 billion on Tuesday.
Warrants increased to 211.54 million units valued at RM17.26 million from 172.18 million units valued at RM14.95 million yesterday.
Volume on the ACE Market improved to 522.91 million shares worth RM137.89 million from 472.46 million shares worth RM132.54 million previously on Tuesday.
Consumer products accounted for 51.8 million shares traded on the Main Market, industrial products (246.84 million), construction (190.28 million), trade and services (478.91 million), technology (71.78 million), infrastructure (11.77 million), SPAC (1.37 million), finance (92.72 million), hotels (6.86 million), properties (247.65 million), plantations (23.74 million), mining (4,230), REITs (7.17 million) and closed/fund (8,000).
The physical price of gold as at 5pm stood at RM165.36 per gramme, up 39 sen from RM164.97 at 5pm yesterday. — Bernama