Bursa Malaysia ends higher fuelled by oil prices rally

KUALA LUMPUR: Bursa Malaysia finished trading yesterday on a firm note, li ed by oil and gas-linked counters amid a crude oil prices rally.

At 5 pm, key index FTSE Bursa Malaysia KLCI (FBM KLCI) climbed 8.24 points, or 0.62 per cent to 1,330.90 from 1,322.66 at Wednesday’s close.

The FBM KLCI opened 2.04 points lower at 1,320.62 at 9 am and hovered between 1,316.94 and 1,332.61 throughout the day.

Market breadth stayed positive, with gainers outpacing losers 671 to 203, while 308 counters were unchanged, 739 untraded and 19 others suspended.

Turnover was high with 5.14 billion shares worth RM2.43 billion traded compared with 4.74 billion shares worth RM2.77 billion Wednesday.

Maybank Investment Bank Bhd remisier Jeffry Azizi Jaafar said benchmark Brent crude oil price surging as much as 12 per cent to US$27.88 per barrel earlier Thursday had boosted investor sentiment in the market.

“Brent crude oil rose a er US President Donald Trump was reported as saying that he expected Saudi Arabia and Russia to reach a deal soon to end their oil price war.

“At the same time, Russian President Vladimir Putin also reportedly called for a solution to address the challenging crude oil markets,” he told Bernama.

Jeffry Azizi said bargain hunting was also seen in some energy and technology-linked stocks yesterday, in addition to the positive sentiment buoyed by the recent stimulus packages announced globally.

Of heavyweights, Petronas Dagangan and Petronas Gas led the gains among the index-linked counters. Both the O&G-related counters were also among the top gainers on the local bourse.

Petronas Dagangan surged RM1.32 to RM21.70 and Petronas Gas added 34 sen to RM15.30, while Press Metal, Public Bank and Genting gained 12 sen each to RM3.18, RM15.80 and RM3.88, respectively.

Top gainers included Nestle, which soared RM1.70 to RM137.80. QL Resources accumulated 40 sen to RM7.90 and Heng Yuan was 32 sen firmer at RM2.78, while Petron Malaysia and Serba Dinamik bagged 29 sen each to RM3.35 and RM1.79, respectively.

The most active list is dominated by O&G-linked counters. Sapura Energy rose 1.5 sen to nine sen, Hibiscus climbed 9.5 sen to 43 sen and Velesto was 4.5 sen be er at 16.5 sen, while Armada and Alam Maritim strengthened three sen each to 16.5 sen and 7.5 sen, respectively.

On the index board, the FBM Emas Index jumped 99.57 points to 9,185.75, the FBM Emas Shariah Index was 134.54 points firmer at 10,057.93, and the FBMT 100 Index climbed 87.66 points to 9.096.53.

The FBM 70 was 233.56 points higher at 10,744.76 and the FBM Ace added 73.30 points to 3,966.48.