Bursa Malaysia closes higher

KUALA LUMPUR: Bursa Malaysia closed higher yesterday on buying interest in financerelated counters, amid the mixed performance of regional bourses and the ongoing US-China tariff tussle, said a dealer.

At 5 pm, the benchmark FTSE Bursa Malaysia KLCI (FBM KLCI) finished at an intra-day high of 1,737.28, up 10.61 points, from Monday’s close of 1,726.67.

The barometer index moved between 1,726.04 and 1,737.28 throughout the day.

Bank Islam Malaysia Bhd Chief Economist, Dr. Mohd Afzanizam Abdul Rashid said Asian markets were generally mixed with the Korean and Chinese stock markets closing lower while Japanese equities ended the day higher.

“The markets are awaiting the Federal Reserve (Fed) Chairman’s testimony tonight in order to seek assurance that the Fed will continue its gradual approach in raising the rates,” he told Bernama.

He said domestically, the consumer price index for June will be closely watched following the zero-rating of the goods and services tax on June 1 this year.

“Overall, the FBM KLCI is still in oversold condition with the resistance level at around 1748.79 points and net sales by the foreigners have slowed recently, implying that such a situation could be reversed at some point in the horizon.

“So we can expect the FBM KLCI to gradually improve in the near term,” he said.

Regionally, Singapore’s Straits Times rose 0.22 per cent to 3,239.92, Hong Kong’s Hang Seng Index declined 1.25 per cent to 28,181.68, and China’s SSE Composite Index eased 0.57 per cent to 2,798.13.

Back home, market breadth was positive with gainers outpacing losers 473 to 376 with 409 counters unchanged, 650 untraded and 17 others suspended.

Volume decreased to 2.33 billion units valued at RM2.14 billion, from 2.04 billion units valued at RM1.99 billion recorded on Monday.

Of the heavyweights, Maybank and CIMB added one sen each to RM9.58 and RM5.67 respectively, Public Bank rose 58 sen to RM23.60 and CIMB declined six sen to RM5.66, while Tenaga improved 14 sen to RM14.78.

Among actives, MyEG, APFT and YTL were flat at RM1.01, three sen and RM1.32 respectively, while MRCB and Sapura Energy inched up one sen each to 69.5 sen and 59.5 sen respectively, with Vivovom and Nova MSC declining one sen to 5.5 sen and 18 sen respectively.

Public Bank led the gainers’ list yesterday, putting on 58 sen to RM23.60, while Ihsan Sukuk was the biggest decliner, giving up RM1.00 to RM95.50.

The FBM Emas Index chalked up 58.12 points to 12,259.96, the FBM70 rose 19.43 points to 14,956.81, the FBMT100 Index improved 59.22 points to 12,062.88, the FBM Emas Shariah Index increased 58.12 points to 12,259.96, but the FBM Ace Index declined 40.84 points to 5,336.66 and the FTSE Bursa Malaysia Small Cap Index trimmed 27.31 points to 14,148.54.

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