Bursa Malaysia ends higher in see saw trade

KUALA LUMPUR: Bursa Malaysia ended Monday’s volatile trading on a positive note, supported by last minutes buying interest.

The benchmark FTSE Bursa Malaysia KLCI (FBM KLCI) rose 2.54 points to 1,644.35 from Friday’s close of 1,641.81, led mainly by Maxis, Axiata, PPB Group, IOI Corp, Dialog Group and Maybank.

The index, which opened 1.86 points higher at 1,643.67, fluctuated between a high of 1,645.72 and low 1,640.38, throughout the day’s session.

Market breadth was positive with gainers outnumbering decliners 499 to 386, while 383 counters remained unchanged, 578 were untraded and 21 others were suspended.

Volume was higher at 3.87 billion units worth RM2.40 billion from 3.18 billion units worth RM2.13 billion recorded last Friday.

Bank Islam chief economist Dr Mohd Afzanizam Abdul Rashid said oil and gas stocks appeared to be dominating the actively traded stocks in Bursa Malaysia.

This is very much in line with higher Brent crude prices which has surpassed the US$70 per barrel.

“Geopolitical development in Libya, Venezuela and Iran has been supportive to crude oil. Beyond oil, the latest Non-Farm Payroll showed that the US economy is still healthy with 196,000 new jobs created in March, higher than 177,000 estimates among the consensus.

“Apart from that, the US-China trade discussion has been constructive. So talks of a potential recession in the US following the recent yield curve inversion recently has been gradually dies off,” he told Bernama.

However, he sees the UK Brexit remained a wildcard as it near to the supposedly new dateline on April 12, 2019.

In addition, the market was also watching closely the US’s Consumer Price Index (CPI) to be released on Wednesday.

“Consensus is looking for a 1.8 per cent rise in March from 1.5 per cent increases in February.

“So headline inflation could be slowly increasing,” he added.

Hence, Mohd Afzanizam said the current resistance level of 1,653 seems to be quite far-fetched in view of the market uncertainties.

Among the heavyweights, Maybank rose two sen to RM9.28, PetChem was one sen higher at RM9.11 but Public Bank declined 26 sen to RM22.62 and Tenaga, IHH and CIMB each dropped two sen to RM12.60, RM5.58 and RM5.09, respectively.

Maxis inched up 21 sen to RM5.70, PPB Group gained 28 sen to RM18.78 and Axiata and IOI Corp each rose five sen to RM4.23 and RM4.53, respectively.

Among actives, Sapura Energy dropped half a sen to 35 sen, Priceworth International added half a sen to 7.5 sen and Dayang Enterprise went up 17 sen to RM1.54.

The FBM Emas Index increased 44.62 points to 11,645.48, the FBM Emas Shariah Index rose 89.31 points to 11,876.77 and the FBMT 100 was higher by 40.40 points to 11,478.03.

The FBM 70 was 142.69 firmer at 14,567.23 but the FBM Ace Index slid 42.51 points to 4,773.10.

Sector-wise, the Industrial Products and Services Index added 0.55 of a point to 170.09, the Plantation Index jumped 49.68 points to 7,286.23 while the Financial Services Index lost 41.70 points to 16,847.02.

Main Market volume grew to 2.87 billion shares worth RM2.17 billion from 2.15 billion shares worth RM1.56 billion recorded last Friday.

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