Bursa Malaysia ends higher, investors discount US TPP withdrawal

KUALA LUMPUR: Bursa Malaysia closed higher yesterday with the market barometer ending at its intra-day high on better market sentiment as investors discounted the United States’ withdrawal from the Trans-Pacific Partnership (TPP) trade pact, dealers said.

The benchmark FTSE Bursa Malaysia KLCI ( FBM KLCI) increased 9.38 points to end at 1,680.69 compared with Monday’s close of 1,671.31.

After opening 3.7 points higher at 1,674.37, the index moved between 1,670.53 and 1,680.69 throughout the day.

Gainers led losers by 416 to 353, with 364 counters unchanged, 601 untraded and 35 others suspended.

Volume increased to 1.56 billion shares worth RM2.06 billion from Monday’s 1.53 billion shares worth RM1.81 billion.

Affin Hwang Investment Bank Vice-President/Head of Retail Research, Datuk Dr Nazri Khan Adam Khan said the market had gained optimism after US President Donald Trump adopted a protectionist stance in his inauguration speech.

“This has reduced uncertainty and the regional markets including Malaysia have gained impetus, while there’s a rebound in commodities prices,” he told Bernama.

However, another dealer said retailers might remain cautious and locked in near-term gains among the small capitalised stocks and lower liners.

Regionally, Singapore’s Straits Times added 0.46 per cent to 3,039.03, China’s Shanghai Composite gained 0.18 per cent to 3,142.55 and the Hang Seng Index perked 0.22 per cent to 22,949.86.

On the scoreboard, the FBM Emas Index firmed 66.47 points to 11,766.04, the FBMT 100 Index rose 68.80 points to 11,473.12 and the FBM Emas Shariah Index garnered 63.56 points to 12,257.34.

The FBM 70 climbed 99.02 points to 13,436.95 but the FBM Ace Index fell 21.21 points to 4,912.17.

Sector- wise, the Industrial Index was 13.54 points better at 3,168.80, the Finance Index increased 50.66 points to 14,818.25 and the Plantation Index rose 39.01 points to 7,934.39.

Amongheavyweights,Maybank added four sen to RM8.32, Petronas Chemicals added three sen to RM7.16, IHH Healthcare rose 11 sen to RM6.42 and Maxis perked six sen to RM6.05.

Tenaga and Sime Darby each lost two sen to RM13.88 and RM8.68, respectively.

As for actives, Hibiscus edged up 1.5 sen to 48 sen, CIMB increased four sen to RM4.92, IFCAMSC inched up half-a-sen to 38 sen and AirAsia improved five sen to RM2.49.

Main Market turnover rose to 1.07 billion units worth RM1.95 billion from Monday’s 1.01 billion units worth RM1.73 billion.

ACE Market volume advanced to 339.19 million shares valued at RM51.72 million from yesterday’s 267.50 million shares valued at RM51.01 million.

Warrants shrank to 142.38 million units worth RM19.10 million from 228.53 million units worth RM26.55 million previously.

Consumer products accounted for 95.56 million shares traded on the Main Market, industrial products ( 267.82 million), construction ( 55.51 million), trade and services (375.49 million), technology ( 62.23 million), infrastructure (14.29 million), SPAC ( 1.36 million), finance (70.31 million), hotels (115,000), properties ( 62.75 million), plantations (22.48 million), mining (0), REITs (39.31 million), and closed/fund (9,400). — Bernama