KUALA LUMPUR: Bursa Malaysia ended on a positive note after strong bargain-hunting was seen across the board, especially for blue-chip stocks.
Key index FTSE Bursa Malaysia KLCI (FBM KLCI) climbed 2.48% or 31.26 points to close at 1,291.14.
The index hovered between 1,271.34 and 1,311.22 throughout the day.
According to a technical analysis, the immediate resistance of the FBM KLCI is still located at the 1,300 benchmark with the support level of 1,250.
On the broader market, gainers outpaced losers 740 to 167, while 246 counters were unchanged, 865 untraded and 18 others suspended.
Turnover amounted to 3.1 billion shares worth RM2.16 billion compared with yesterday’s 2.80 billion shares worth RM2.31 billion.
An analyst said that based on the amount recorded from the turnover, Bursa Malaysia’s bargain-hunting was dominated by small and mid-sized cap stocks, focusing on energy and technology-related counters.
At close, the technology index was up 7.79%, while energy rose by 6.65%.
“Energy-related counters suffered a huge blow due to the drastic decline of global oil price. As of now, the oil price rebounded to above US$30 per barrel compared with yesterday’s US$26 per barrel,” she said.
On the KLCI performance, she said 20 out of 30 stocks ended on a positive note as the KLCI reached a 10-year low, triggering bargain-hunting.
“Stocks such as Public Bank and Tenaga Nasional experienced a downtrend since mid-January due to a sell-off outflow,” she said.
Among the heavyweights, banking counters led the gainers with Public Bank rising RM1.34 to RM15.24, Hong Leong climbing RM1.52 to RM14.22, Maybank increasing 18 sen to RM7.30, CIMB garnering 15 sen to RM3.44, and RHB surging 28 sen to RM5.00.
Of the actives, oil and gas-related counters continued their rally lead since morning with Hibiscus adding 2.5 sen to 31 sen and Sapura Energy gaining half-a-sen to 7.5 sen.
Technology counters have also seen an increase in interest with Vortex and Sanichi both listed as actively traded.
On the index board, the FBM Emas Index surged 241.08 points to 8,742.73, the FBM 70 gained 345.83 points to 9,698.73 and the FBM Emas Shariah Index garnered 142,88 points to 9,471.12.
The FBMT 100 Index increased by 231.13 points to 8,689.24 and the FBM Ace rose 200.21 points to 3,552.15.
Sector-wise, the Industrial Products and Services Index added 2.19 points to 97.32, the Plantation Index upticked 103.48 points to 5,834.18 and the Financial Services Index was 633.89 points better at 11,995.48.
Main Market volume increased to 2.25 billion worth RM1.99 billion compared with 2.17 billion shares worth RM2.18 billion on Monday.
Warrants turnover was slightly higher at 262.95 million worth RM69.74 million units compared with yesterday’s 261.65 million units worth RM67.60 million.
Volume on the ACE Market nearly tripled to 632.44 shares worth RM98.43 million from yesterday’s 368.08 million shares worth RM62.28 million.
Consumer products and services accounted for 319.99 million shares traded on the Main Market, industrial products and services (343.36 million), construction (197.68 million), technology (318.52 million), SPAC (nil), financial services (78.31 million), property (177.91 million), plantations (40.19 million), REITs (22.79 million), closed/fund (47,000), energy (586.87 million), healthcare (39.62 million), telecommunications and media (57.22 million), transportation and logistics (57.22 million), and utilities (29.64 million). - Bernama
