Key index rebounds on bargain hunting
BURSA Malaysia rebounded yesterday with its key index closing firmly above the key 1,600 support level, propelled by bargain-hunting after Tuesday’s steep fall.
The FTSE Bursa Malaysia KLCI (FBM KLCI) settled 12.24 points higher yesterday at 1,611.43 as traders actively picked up beaten-down counters, including heavyweights and lower liners.
The benchmark index opened 2.24 points higher at 1,601.43 from Tuesday’s close of 1,599.19, and moved between 1,601.04 and 1,617.43 during the day.
Gainers trounced losers 599 to 276 with 350 counters unchanged, 686 untraded and 24 others suspended.
Turnover, however, decreased to 2.55 billion shares valued at RM2.12
billion from 2.82 billion shares worth RM2.46 billion on Tuesday.
Phillip Capital Management, Asia-Pacific, senior vice-president (investment) Datuk Dr Nazri Khan Adam Khan said short-term technical outlook suggested that the FBM KLCI was in a deeply oversold situation and should have had a corrective rally.
The immediate resistance was spotted at around 1,650 points, followed by 1,700 points, he said.
Nazri said the current weakness also represented a good buying opportunity for local stocks as there were no signs of slowing down in Malaysia’s trade volume.
Bank Islam Malaysia Bhd chief economist Dr Mohd Afzanizam Abdul Rashid said there seemed to be increasing hope of more stimulus measures from China as a series of high frequencies indicators such as fixed asset investment, industrial production and retail sales had moderated last month.
Among the heavyweights, Axiata added 12 sen to RM4.42, Dialog rose 21 sen to RM3.28, Digi went up 13 sen to RM4.70 and Hartalega was 27 sen higher at RM5.26. Maybank improved five sen to RM9.01 and Top Glove was 19 sen better at RM4.97.
Of the actively-traded stocks, Bumi Armada advanced half-a-sen to 19.5 sen, Vortex increased seven sen to 27.5 sen and Lambo dropped half-a-sen to 7.5 sen.
The FBM Emas Index expanded 94.44 points to 11,353.17, the FBMT 100 improved 90.18 points to 11,186.89 and the FBM 70 gained 133.69 points to 13,950.14.
The FBM Emas Shariah Index rose 148.82 points to 11,525.72 and the FBM ACE Index was up 53.34 points to 4,448.49.
Main Market volume declined to 1.35 billion shares worth RM1.94 billion from 1.81 billion shares worth RM2.30 billion yesterday.
Meanwhile, The FBM KLCI futures contract on Bursa Malaysia Derivatives ended higher yesterday.
May 2019 and June 2019 increased 2.0 points each to 1,604.5 and 1,606.0, respectively, September 2019 went up 4.5 points to 1,603.5, while December 2019 was 1.0 point higher at 1,602.5.
Turnover, however, decreased 6,730 lots from 10,149 lots on Tuesday and open interest declined to 33,956 contracts from 36,495 contracts.