Bursa Malaysia soars 1.66 pct on mild quarter-end window dressing

BURSA Malaysia wrapped up the first quarter of 2020 on a positive note, liJed by some mild quarterend window dressing seen across the board.

Rakuten Trade Sdn Bhd vicepresident of research Vincent Lau said the local bourse was also tracking the uptrend of its regional peers. At 5pm, the FBM KLCI soared 22.01 points, or 1.66 per cent, to close at 1,350.89 from 1,328.88 at Monday’s close.

The key index opened 7.72 points stronger at 1,336.60 at 9 am today and hovered between 1,335.91 and 1,352.20.

Market breadth was overwhelmingly positive with gainers outpacing losers 708 to 185, while 288 counters were unchanged, 817 untraded and 96 others suspended.

Turnover widened to 3.52 billion shares worth RM2.87 billion as compared with 2.83 billion shares worth RM1.86 billion on Monday.

Commenting on yesterday’s performance, Lau said the rebound could be a relief rally as volatility is seen to remain high.

“Market sentiment could turn sour amid the struggling crude oil prices, along with the rising number of Covid-19 cases particularly in the United States,” he told Bernama.

Regionally, Singapore’s Straits Times Index jumped 2.69 per cent to 2,481.23, Hong Kong’s Hang Seng Index advanced 1.85 per cent to 23,603.48 and South Korea’s Kospi Index was 2.19 per cent stronger at 1,754.64.

Among the FBM KLCI’s 30 counters, Petronas Chemicals rose 30 sen to RM5.05, Sime Darby Plantation increased 29 sen to RM4.94, Maybank bagged 14 sen to RM7.45, Tenaga was 22 sen higher at RM12.02 and Petronas Dagangan surged RM1.04 to RM21.16.

Of the mostly actively traded counters, Armada and Sapura Energy edged up half-a-sen each to 13.5 sen and eight sen respectively, Hibiscus accumulated 2.5 sen to 34 sen, Sanichi lost half-a-sen to 4.5 sen while Pegasus Heights was flat at five sen.

Top gainers included Dutch Lady which firmed RM1.26 to RM43.30, while Nestle garnered 70 sen to RM136.70, Kuala Lumpur Kepong strengthened 66 sen to RM20.76, F&N perked 50 sen to RM31.02 and Panasonic Manufacturing Malaysia was 40 sen higher at RM26.88.

On the index board, the FBM Emas Index improved 159.40 points to 9,239.81, the FBM Emas Shariah Index accumulated 196.12 points to 10,105.08 while the FBMT 100 Index climbed 148.78 points to 9,166.52.

The FBM 70 surged 168.93 points to 10,550.56 and the FBM Ace was 198.34 points stronger at 3,981.81. Sector-wise, the Industrial Products and Services Index edged up 3.77 points to 107.60, the Financial Services Index leapt 133.93 points to 12,270.67 and the Plantation Index was 208.96 points higher at 6,252.13.