Bursa rises on brisk buying activities

BURSA Malaysia ended higher yesterday on brisk buying activities and against a backdrop of mixed regional markets.

The benchmark FTSE Bursa Malaysia KLCI (FBM KLCI) gained 2.34 points at end at 1,622.07, against Thursday’s close of 1,619.73.

The index opened 0.91-of-apoint higher at 1,620.64 and fluctuated between 1,618.69 and 1,625.22 throughout the day.

Market breadth was positive with 514 gainers and 275 losers, while 426 counters were unchanged, 693 untraded and 19 others suspended.

Volume was lower at 2.52 billion units worth RM1.69 billion against Thursday’s 2.89 billion units worth RM2.17 billion.

Regionally, Japan’s Nikkei 225 added 0.50 per cent to 22,200.56, Indonesia’s Jakarta Composite Index advanced 0.40 per cent to 6,507.22, Hong Kong’s Hang Seng Index fell 0.54 per cent to 29,963.26 and Singapore’s Straits Times Index eased 0.03 per cent to 3,347.58.

Of the heavyweights, Maybank advanced nine sen to RM9.09, IHH Healthcare jumped eight sen to RM5.56, Hong Leong Bank increased 14 sen to RM20.08 while Petronas Chemicals and CIMB gained two sen each to RM8.95 and RM5.07, respectively.

Of the actives, Iskandar Waterfront went up 16 sen to RM1.02, Ekovest grew eight sen to 67 sen. Iris Corp was one sen higher at 16.5 sen and Compugates was flat at 2.5 sen. Sapura Energy fell half-a-sen to 31 sen and Seacera declined 1.5 sen to 32 sen.

The FBM Emas Index bagged 30.11 points to 11,497.23, the FBMT100 increased 26.79 points to 11,324.88 and the FBM 70 was 76.38 points higher at 14,382.51.

The FBM Emas Shariah Index rose 8.15 points to 11,690.02 and the FBM Ace Index advanced 28.37 points to 4,692.85.

Main Market volume decreased to 1.86 million shares worth RM1.57 billion against 1.95 billion shares worth RM1.99 billion on Thursday.

Warrants turnover tumbled to 200.79 million units valued at RM22.43 million from 416.81 million units valued at RM89.25 million on Thursday.

Volume on the ACE Market eased to 465.19 million shares worth RM90.72 million versus 513.24 million shares worth RM92.01 million.

The FBM KLCI futures contract on Bursa Malaysia Derivatives also ended higher yesterday, in line with the underlying cash market.

April 2019 rose 8.0 points 1,627.0, May 2019 advanced 7.5 points to 1,628.0 while June 2019 and September 2019 both increased 6.5 points to 1,626.5 and 1,624.0, respectively,

Turnover decreased to 3,014 lots from 5,518 lots on Thursday, while open interest eased to 29,884 contracts from 32,340 contracts.