Bursa Malaysia ends higher on continued buying momentum

KUALA LUMPUR: Bursa Malaysia ended on a positive note yesterday following continued buying momentum in selected heavyweights led by Public Bank, and lower liners, dealers said.

At 5pm, the benchmark FTSE Bursa Malaysia KLCI ( FBM KLCI) was 6.20 points or 0.35 per cent firmer at 1,783.47 from Thursday’s close of 1,777.27.

The index opened 3.37 points higher at 1,780.64 and moved between 1,780.26 and 1,785.03 throughout the trading session.

On the broader market, gainers outpaced losers 466 to 403 with 451 countersunchanged,561untraded and 30 others suspended.

Volume eased to 2.0 billion units valued at RM2.03 billion from 2.10 billion units worth RM1.91 billion on Thursday.

M&A Securities Sdn Bhd Chief Dealing Officer R Sundararajah said market sentiment was boosted by news on the revival of trade talks between the US and China later this month and stronger corporate earnings by some companies in the US equity market.

“Closer to home, markets have yet to react on Bank Negara Malaysia’s (BNM) announcement on the second- quarter gross domestic product (GDP) growth, which grew at 4.5 per cent compared with 5.8 per cent in the same period last year,” he told Bernama.

Meanwhile, BNM had revised downwards the country’s fullyear GDP growth for 2018 to five per cent from the 5.5- 6.0 per cent projected earlier, due to prolonged disruptions in oil and gas production, and low production in the agriculture sector.

On the local bour se, heavyweights, Public Bank rose two sen to RM24.50 and CIMB added one sen to RM5.89.

Maybank was down one sen to RM9.78, Tenaga eased four sen to RM15.70 and Petronas Chemicals lost 10 sen to RM9.14.

Of the actives, QES perked two sen to 26.5 sen, Inari gave up 12 sen to RM2.28 while Euro bagged 2.5 sen to 23.5 sen.

Among top gainers, BAT increased 56 sen o RM35.90, IQ Group advanced 43 sen to RM1.88 and MPI was 34 sen higher at RM12.14.

The FBM Emas Index improved 40.84 points to 12,619.57, the FBMT100 Index climbed 41.38 points to 12,389.40 and the FBM 70 put on 44.98 points to 15,383.45.

The FBM Emas Shariah Index gained 46.19 points to 12,781.04 and the FBM Ace was 29.36 points higher at 5,552.40.

Sector-wise, the Finance Index shed 0.42 of-a-point to 17,388.79 but the Plantation Index was up 55.55 points to 7,627.19 and the Industrial Index rose 8.65 points to 3,232.90.

Main Market volume slipped to 1.25 billion shares worth RM1.84 billion, from 1.39 billion shares valued at RM1.72 billion on Thursday.

Warrants turnover declined to 329.55 million units valued at RM80.25 million, against 372.13 million units valued at RM105.98 million recorded previously.

Volume on the ACE Market increased to 412.33 million shares valued at RM106.64 million, versus Thursday’s 339.35 million shares valued at RM80.82 million.

Consumer products accounted for 125.38 million shares traded on the Main Market, industrial products ( 271.68 mi l lion), construction (111.78 million), trade and services ( 412.80 million), technology ( 151.27 million), infrastructure (13.94 million), SPAC ( 3.07 million), finance (44.38 million), hotels ( 292,300), properties ( 98.76 million), plantations ( 21.04 million), mining (10,600), REITs (2.44 million), and closed/fund ( 5,000). For further information on stocks and prices, please visit www.bursamalaysia.com.