Bursa Malaysia bucks regional trend to end marginally higher

KUALA LUMPUR: Bursa Malaysia held on to earlier gains to close marginally higher yesterday, bucking the regional trend, as investors risk appetite improved, dealers said.

At 5pm, the benchmark FTSE Bursa Malaysia KLCI (FBM KLCI) rose 1.94 points to 1,596.74 from 1,594.80 at yesterday’s close.

The index opened 1.26 points higher at 1,596.06 and moved between 1,595.02 and 1,605.7 throughout the day.

On the broader market, gainers beat losers 585 to 535, while 455 counters were unchanged, 547 untraded and 32 others suspended. Total volume was lower at 6.63 billion units worth RM4.81 billion compared with 6.71 billion units worth RM4.28 billion on Thursday.

Bank Islam Malaysia Bhd economist Adam Mohamed Rahim said the FBM KLCI saw a 0.12 per cent increase yesterday, bucking the trend of regional peers such as South Korea, the Philippines, Japan, and Hong Kong.

He said these markets were in the red, taking cue from news on new applications for unemployment benefits in the US, which dipped to 900,000 last week but still remained stubbornly high that investors snapped up rubber glove stocks amid the surge in Covid-19 infections.

“The buying interest in rubber glove counters saw the share prices of Top Glove, Supermax and Hartalega, which are also constituents of the FBM KLCI, rise by at least 3.0 per cent during the day.

“As such, the Bursa Malaysia Healthcare Index saw a 1.8 per cent gain on Friday, emerging as the largest gainer among Bursa Malaysia sectoral indices. However gains were capped by the decline in telecommunication players,” he told Bernama.

Among other heavyweights, Public Bank added 10 sen to RM21.66, Top Glove improved 23 sen to RM6.25, PChem was flat at RM7.35, while Maybank eased five sen to RM8.00 and Tenaga decreased 10 sen to RM9.78.

Of the actives, QES and Bioalpha rose four sen each to 38 sen and 30 sen, respectively, Dagang NeXchange increased half-a-sen to 26 sen, Dynaciate was flat at 12 sen, while K-Star Sports eased 4.5 sen to 21 sen.

On the index board, the FBM Emas Index gained 30.25 points to 11,563.62, the FBMT 100 Index expanded 25.45 points to 11,294.76, and the FBM Emas Shariah Index was 63.27 points higher at 13,048.95. The FBM 70 rose 79.16 points to 14901.68 and the FBM ACE increased 33.55 points to 10,758.01.

Sector-wise, the Financial Services Index inched down 1.13 points to 14,885.66, the Plantation Index decreased 7.76 points to 7,223.16, and the Industrial Products and Services Index slipped 0.54 of-a-point to 177.35.