Bursa Malaysia bucks regional trend to close higher

KUALA LUMPUR: Bursa Malaysia bucked the regional trend to close higher on buying interest in telecommunication and selected financial heavyweights.

At 5pm, the key FTSE Bursa Malaysia KLCI (FBM KLCI) closed 8.08 points higher at 1,688.45 from Tuesday’s close of 1,680.37.

The index opened 2.59 points higher at 1,682.96 and moved between 1,680.61 and 1,690.56 throughout the trading session.

Of the heavyweights, TM advanced 23 sen to RM3.54, Hong Leong Bank perked 20 sen to RM18.20, Axiata rose 17 sen to RM4.21, DiGi gained seven sen to RM4.16 and CIMB added six sen to RM5.46.

A dealer said the regional stock markets fell on caution ahead of the Friday deadline for further US tariffs on China, fuelling concerns over a full blown trade war.

“Investor concerns over trade have intensified this week as they await US tariffs on US$34 billion in Chinese products, which are set to kick in on Friday,” he said.

He said that apart from China, the US was also engaged in disputes with several other trading partners including Canada, Mexico and the European Union.

He added that the countries have either begun imposing or are due to start implementing duties on US goods after being on the receiving end of the US President Donald Trump administration’s decision to slap tariffs on steel and aluminium imports.

Regionwise, China’s Shanghai Composite Index eased 27.76 points to 2,759.13, Hong Kong’s Hang Seng Index fell 303.9 points to 28,241.67 and Japan’s Nikkei 225 declined 68.50 points to 21,717.04.

Among actives, MyEG added two sen to 92 sen, Ucrest gained 3.5 sen to 35 sen and Velesto Energy improved 1.5 sen to 29.5 sen.

Both Nova MSC and Sapura Energy were flat at 16.5 sen and 61.5 sen respectively.

On the scoreboard, the FBM Emas Index jumped 65.70 points to 11,950.33, the FBM70 surged 120.85 points to 14,659.24 and the FBMT100 Index increased 66.38 points to 11,748.45.

The FBM Emas Shariah Index rose 82.08 points to 12,119.39 and the FBM Ace Index went up 69.47 points to 5,272.32.

Sector-wise, the Finance Index rose 54.92 points to 16,565.69, the Industrial Index edged up 20.66 points to 3,119.78 but the Plantation Index eased 7.69 points to 7,496.48.

Gainers led losers 497 to 322, with 398 counters unchanged, 642 untraded and 17 others suspended.

Volume was lower at 2.03 billion units valued at RM1.63 billion from Tuesday’s 2.13 billion units valued at RM1.65 billion. Main Market volume increased to 1.2 billion shares worth RM1.4 billion from yesterday’s 1.18 billion shares worth RM1.37 billion.

Warrants turnover fell to 448.11 million units valued at RM143.21 million from Tuesday’s 702.24 million units valued at RM228.73 million.

Volume on the ACE Market improved to 383.39 million shares worth RM87.68 million from 245.31 million shares worth RM54.01 million previously.

Consumer products accounted for 72.97 million shares traded on the Main Market, industrial products (242.41 million), construction (89.12 million), trade and services (546.02 million), technology (84.03 million), infrastructure (10.68 million), SPAC (4.0 million), finance (39.53 million), hotels (7.38 million), properties (88.97 million), plantations (15.94 million), mining (6,600), REITs (2.24 million) and closed/fund (16,000).