Bursa Malaysia bucks regional trend to close higher

KUALA LUMPUR: Bursa Malaysia snapped a three-day losing streak to close higher yesterday on technical rebound, amid buying support from local funds, dealers said.

The benchmark FTSE Bursa Malaysia KLCI ( FBM KLCI) climbed 3.07 points to end at 1,798.57, after fluctuating between 1,794.79 and 1,802.60 throughout the day. The index opened 0.32 of-a-point higher at 1,795.82 after closing at 1,795.5 on Wednesday.

On the broader market, losers trounced gainers 553 to 297, with 404 counters unchanged, 618 untraded and 36 suspended.

Volume fell to 1.98 billion units worth RM1.9 billion from 2.91 billion units worth RM2.92 billion chalked up on Wednesday.

Bank Islam Malaysia Bhd chief economist Dr Mohd Afzanizam Abdul Rashid said despite the support from domestic investors, Asian markets were generally in the red as concerns over emerging market sell- offs dominated market sentiments.

Last week, the Central Bank of Argentina raised its policy rate to 60 per cent after Turkey did so by increasing its key rate to 17.75 per cent last month.

The situation got worse as market talks had it that Indonesia might considering taking the same measure such as raising the policy rate to stem capital outflows as the rupiah is weakening against the US dollar, he added.

“So it seems that countries which are experiencing twin deficits (current account and fiscal deficits) are struggling to fend off foreign outflows via interest rates which could seriously affect their domestic growth.

Of heavyweights, Maybank added one sen to RM9.88, PBBank was flat at RM24.98, Tenaga gained four sen to RM15.76 while PChem declined one sen to RM9.42.

Among actives, Nexgram and Sumatec shed half-a-sen each to 2.5 sen and three sen, respectively, PWorth was flat at five sen and Pesona Metro was down two sen to 33 sen.

The FBM Emas Index was 6.18 points lower at 12,560.63, the FBMT 100 Index eased 1.68 points to 12,374.62, the FBM Emas Shariah Index fell 2.49 points to 12,688.91, the FBM 70 declined 88.09 points to 14,917.69 and the FBM Ace Index went down 24.32 points to 5,141.70.

Sector- wise, the Finance Index improved 2.83 points to 17,776.74, the Plantation Index rose 11.56 points to 7,520.27 and the Industrial Index climbed 10.09 points to 3,226.12.

Main Market volume declined to 1.14 billion shares worth RM1.71 billion from 1.70 billion worth RM2.57 billion recorded on Wednesday.

Warrant turnover shrank to 545.81 million units worth RM146.17 million from 879.91 million units worth RM277.17 million transacted previously.

Volume on the ACE Market fell to 292.99 million shares worth RM44.36 million from 328.11 million shares valued at RM69.18 million.

Consumer products accounted for 54.52 million shares traded on the Main Market, industrial products ( 308.08 million), construction ( 119.78 million), trade and services (433.4 million), technology ( 79.18 million), infrastructure ( 8.58 million), SPAC ( 5.50 million), finance (48.87 million), hotels (222,900), properties ( 64.22 million), plantations (11.92 million), mining (30.000), REITs (4.71 million) and closed/fund (12,000).

For further information on stocks and prices, please visit www.bursamalaysia.com.