Late buying interests in heavyweights give Bursa Malaysia a lift

KUALA LUMPUR: Bursa Malaysia finished on a firm note yesterday, supported by late buying interests in selected heavyweights, dealers said.

A dealer said Asian markets were also higher as they shook off the overnight risk aversion that gripped financial markets.

At 5pm, the FTSE Bursa Malaysia KLCI (FBM KLCI) rose 2.56 points to 1,775.50 after moving between 1,768.52 and 1,775.76 throughout the day.

The index opened 0.19 of-apoint lower to 1,772.75 from Wednesday’s close of 1,772.94.

Market breadth was positive, with gainers outpacing losers by 433 to 414, with 366 counters unchanged, 626 untraded and 38 others were suspended.

Volume rose to 2.1 billion units worth RM1.98 billion from Wednesday’s two billion units worth RM1.97 billion.

A dealer said US President Donald Trump’s threat to shut down the US government if it declined to fund the building of a wall along the US-Mexico border sent negative sentiment to the Wall Street and this resulted in investors shifting to Asian stocks.

Finance-related stocks, namely, AMMB, which slipped seven sen to RM4.52, CIMB (minus two sen to RM6.72), Maybank (minus one sen to RM9.57) and Hong Leong Financial (minus16 sen to RM16.70).

As for other heavyweights, Tenaga rose two sen to RM14.28, Public Bank was flat at RM20.56, Sime Darby shed seven sen to RM9.23 and Petronas Gas eased two sen to RM18.98.

Of the actives, Apft and JAG fell half-a-sen each to 2.5 sen and 14 sen, respectively, Mlabs down two sen to 24 sen, while Palette Multimedia rose three sen to 11 sen.

The FBM Emas Index edged up 23.10 points to 12,643.65, FBM Emas Shariah Index increased 45.57 points to 12,840.00 and the FBMT 100 Index rose 22.56 points to 12,299.42.

The FBM 70 advanced 45.97 points to 15,087.55 and the FBM Ace was 64.13 points higher at 6,645.48.

Sector-wise, the Plantation Index improved 44.57 points to 7,875.87, Finance Index erased 31.87 points to 16,699.62 and the Industrial Index fell 6.49 points to 3,232.69.

Main Market volume fell to 1.23 billion shares worth RM1.77 billion from 1.41 billion shares worth RM1.83 billion on Wednesday.

Volume on the ACE Market rose to 680.36 million units valued at RM179.49 million versus 357.95 million units valued at RM110.25 million previously.

Warrants decreased to 172.02 million shares worth RM24.96 million from 222.62 million shares worth RM25.63 million on Wednesday.

Consumer products accounted for 54.93 million shares traded on the Main Market, industrial products (231.85 million), construction (100.15 million), trade and services (595.07 million), technology (45.63 million), infrastructure (3.18 million), SPAC (408,100 million), finance (64.88 million), hotels (3.73 million), properties (91.49 million), plantations (69.99 million), mining (15,000), REITs (8.03 million), and closed/fund (78,800).

For further information on stocks and prices, please visit www.bursamalaysia.com.