Bursa M'sia ends higher on mild buying support

KUALA LUMPUR: Bursa Malaysia ended higher yesterday on mild buying support on selected blue-chip stocks, tracking regional stock markets, a dealer said.

At 5pm, the FTSE Bursa Malaysia KLCI (FBM KLCI) ended 0.13 per cent or 2.54 points higher at 1,862.45 from Monday’s close of 1,859.91.

The key index opened 2.24 points higher at 1,862.15 and moved between 1,861.56 and 1,867.11 throughout the day.

Market breadth was positive with 463 gainers against 433 losers, 395 counters unchanged, 613 untraded and 25 others suspended.

Volume rose to 2.03 billion units valued at RM1.93 billion from 1.98 billion units worth RM1.79 billion on Monday.

Regional stock markets recovered after a recent downtrend, as US-China trade tensions eased, with the hope that discussions between the US and China would prevent any escalation of a trade dispute between the two countries.

“Now that urgent negotiations have opened, I won’t be surprised if it ends up with better trade deals between the world’s two biggest economies,” said FXTM Chief Market Strategist Hussein Sayed.

Japan’s Nikkei 225 rose 2.65 per cent to 21,317.32, Singapore’s Straits Times Index gained 0.72 per cent to 3,436.93 and Hong Kong’s Hang Seng Index up 0.79 per cent to 30,790.83.

Back home, however, the dealer said investors remained cautious as Parliament could be dissolved anytime now to make way for the 14th general election which is anticipated to take place early May.

Among heavyweights, Maybank was flat at RM10.52, Public Bank increased six sen to RM23.98, Tenaga fell four sen to RM15.72, CIMB added four sen to RM7.24 and Petronas Chemicals rose 13 sen to RM8.28.

Of the actively-traded stocks, Sapura Energy eased two sen to 54.5 sen, SKH bagged half-a-sen to 9.5 sen, while Globaltec was flat at five sen.

Among gainers, Nestle advanced RM1.70 to RM149.70, KESM rose 40 sen to RM19.44 and PPB gained 22 sen to RM19.18.

Meanwhile, ACE Market debutant GDB Holdings fell 2.5 sen to 32.5 sen with 42.33 million shares traded.

The FBMEmas Index increased 33.71 points to 13,050.12, the FBMT 100 Index improved 34.90 points to 12,836.62 and the FBM Emas Shariah Index up 48.14 points to 13,213.49.

The FBM 70 jumped 101.84 points to 15,567.62 but the FBM Ace shed 25.60 points to 5,584.74.

Sector-wise, the Finance Index bagged to 34.95 points to 18,181.45, but the Industrial Index eased 6.40 points to 3,227.94 and the Plantation Index went up 4.64 points to 8,039.39.

Main Market volume rose to 1.31 billion units worth RM1.81 billion from 1.29 billion units worth RM1.65 billion on Monday.

Volume on the ACE Market increased to 401.70 million shares valued at RM67.26 million from Monday’s 356.27 million shares valued at RM74.58 million.

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