KUALA LUMPUR: Bursa Malaysia was higher today on persistent buying support in selected heavyweights but closed off its intraday peak amid improved market sentiment, dealers said.
The benchmark FTSE Bursa Malaysia KLCI (FBM KLCI) gained 4.45 points to end the day at 1,495.78 compared with Wednesday’s close of 1,491.33.
The market bellwether, which opened 2.32 points better at 1,493.65, fluctuated between 1,491.01 and 1,498.92 throughout the session.
Digi was the largest contributor to the rise in the composite index with 1.548 points. The telecommunications counter rose 11 sen to RM4.30 with 2.06 million shares changing hands.
The overall market breadth was positive with gainers outpacing losers at 517 versus 435, while 450 counters were unchanged, 790 untraded, and 10 others suspended.
Turnover increased to 4.69 billion units valued at RM2.42 billion from 3.67 billion units worth RM2.53 billion on Wednesday.
“Looking at the broader scale, the FBM KLCI bucked the regional trend as most of its Asian peers such as Thailand, South Korea and the Philippines were in the red amid hawkish comments by the United States Federal Reserve, which stated that it may taper its asset purchasing programme soon.
“Gains were registered despite the Covid-19 cases reaching another record high today as investors were probably bargain hunting,” Bank Islam Malaysia Bhd economist Adam Mohamed Rahim told Bernama.
Another dealer said market sentiment has somewhat recovered as the political uncertainty was addressed following the Prime Minister’s announcement yesterday on the resumption of the Parliament sitting next month, as well as the increasing vaccination rate.
Of the heavyweights, Maybank gained three sen to RM8.04, IHH added one sen to RM5.72, CIMB rose four sen to RM4.55, while Public Bank and Petronas Chemicals were flat at RM3.96 and RM8.00 respectively.
Tenaga, however, fell 11 sen to RM9.72.
Among the actives, Vsolar and Saudee inched up half-a-sen each to 1.5 sen and 9.5 sen respectively, Fintec and Kanger were flat at 2.5 sen and 6.5 sen respectively, while Kejuruteraan Asastera slipped two sen to 59 sen.
On the index board, the FBM Emas Index was 25.28 points higher at 10,980.74, FBMT 100 Index rose 25.59 points to 10,694.85, FBM 70 gained 10.74 points to 14,556.99, FBM Emas Shariah Index increased 36.81 points to 12,068.73, and the FBM ACE soared 89.85 points to 7,172.32.
Sector-wise, the Financial Services Index earned 42.18 points to 14,756.85, the Plantation Index improved 31.47 points to 6,097.92, while the Industrial Products and Services Index added 0.53 of-a-point to 188.04.
Main Market volume decreased to 2.05 billion shares valued at RM1.92 billion from 2.51 billion shares worth RM2.2 billion on Wednesday.
Warrants turnover narrowed to 264.48 million units valued at RM38.71 million compared with yesterday’s 323.06 million units worth RM40.34 million.
Volume on the ACE Market increased sharply to 2.38 billion shares valued at RM465.89 million against 827.7 million shares worth RM292.18 million previously.
Consumer products and services accounted for 443.41 million shares traded on the Main Market, industrial products and services (628.68 million), construction (102.9 million), technology (279.4 million), SPAC (nil), financial services (63.01 million), property (203.24 million), plantation (39.22 million), REITs (5.25 million), closed/fund (46,000), energy (151.58 million), healthcare (47.56 million), telecommunications and media (28.97 million), transportation and logistics (38.96 million), and utilities (13.03 million). — Bernama
