KUALA LUMPUR: Bursa Malaysia reversed yesterday’s losses to end the day on a firm note today, supported by persistent buying momentum.
A dealer said the overnight surge on Wall Street had a wide reaching impact on the sentiment in regional bourses, including the local stock market.
At 5pm, the benchmark FTSE Bursa Malaysia KLCI (FBM KLCI) finished 18.12 points or 1.08% higher at 1,690.72 from 1,672.60 on Wednesday.
The barometer which opened 7.11 points higher at 1,679.71, moved between 1,677.33 and 1,691.65 throughout the day.
Market breadth remained positive with 595 gainers outpacing 221 losers, 317 counters were unchanged, 751 untraded and 54 others were suspended.
Turnover stood at 1.60 billion shares worth RM1.21 billion.
Regionally, Singapore’s Straits Times Index increased 1.12% to 3,044.74, Japan’s Nikkei rose 3.88% to 20,077.62 and South Korea’s KOSPI Composite Index was 0.02% better at 2,028.44.
Meanwhile, news that a trade team would travel from the United States would travel to Beijing in the week of Jan 7, to hold talks with Chinese officials, sent a positive signal to the market.
“Investors expect the talks to potentially soothe trade tensions between the two economic giants,“ he said.
Among heavyweights, Maybank rose five sen to RM9.40, Public Bank bagged 12 sen to RM24.88, Tenaga advanced four sen to RM13.58, Petronas Chemicals accumulated 17 sen to RM9.36 and CIMB perked six sen to RM5.78.
Of actives, Hibiscus perked four sen to 81.5 sen, MyEG increased 3.5 sen to 96.5 sen, Prestariang advanced two sen to 42.5 sen, Sapura Energy inched up half-a-sen to 29.5 sen while Hubline was flat at four sen.
Nestle was the top gainer, surging RM2.50 to RM148.00 followed by BAT which gained 80 sen to RM36.36, Ajinomoto added 60 sen to RM19.60, Hong Leong Bank strengthened 52 sen to RM20.72 and Allianz was 40 sen higher at RM12.80.
The FBM Emas Index earned 143.34 points to 11,523.64, the FBMT 100 Index leaped 143.64 points to 11,442.76, the FBM 70 surged 252.04 points to 13,066.56 and the FBM Ace Index was 63.17 points firmer at 4,237.66.
The FBM Emas Shariah Index jumped 161.26 points to 11,485.29.
Sector-wise, the Finance Index climbed 146.12 points to 17,347.05, the Industrial Products and Services Index edged up 1.91 points to 166.43 and the Plantation Index added 74.37 points to 6,829.03.
Main Market volume rose to 1.11 billion shares, worth RM1.10 billion, from 1.10 billion shares, valued at RM922.04 million, recorded on Wednesday.
Warrants turnover jumped to 328.38 million units valued at RM75.07 million versus Wednesday’s 171.23 million units valued at RM25.44 million.
Volume on the ACE Market widened to 161.66 million shares, worth RM28.24 million, compared with 139.32 million shares, valued at RM19.09 million, transacted yesterday.
Consumer products and services accounted for 130.28 million shares traded on the Main Market, industrial products and services (171.85 million), construction (82.71 million), technology (166.47 million), SPAC (17.18 million) financial services (17.72 million), property (96.88 million), plantations (19.96 million), REITs (8.59 million), closed/fund (21,000), energy (274.42 million), healthcare (22.74 million), telecommunications and media (27.73 million), transportation and logistics (62.02 million), and utilities (16.96 million). — Bernama
