Bursa Malaysia ends higher on interest in selected heavyweights

KUALA LUMPUR: Bursa Malaysia ended higher yesterday, lifted by the rebound in selected heavyweights amid rotational play in oil and gas stocks.

The benchmark FTSE Bursa Malaysia KLCI ( FBM KLCI) closed 6.02 points higher at 1,680.54 compared with Thursday’s close of 1,674.52.

The benchmark index opened 0.07 of-a-point higher at 1,674.59 and moved between 1,672.60 and 1,683.25 throughout the day.

Maybank Investment Bank chartist Nik Ihsan Raja Abdullah said oil and gas-related stocks were expected to have a cool-off period previously; however, interest in the stocks remained decent since Thursday.

“We can see that their interest in the oil and gas counters, not to mention the second and third liners that were supporting Friday’s trade.

“However, we also see that there were some profit-taking starting in these second and third liners,” he told Bernama.

On the heavyweights, he noted that bargain- hunting took place today for selected heavyweights.

“For instance, Top Glove, which hit a record high of RM5.21 in February, today went as low as RM4.30 before rebounding to RM4.57, a decline of about 16 per cent. Hence investors are taking chances to invest,” he added.

On the scoreboard, market breadth was slightly positive with gainers outnumbering losers 484 to 406, while 356 counters remained unchanged, 658 were untraded and 44 others were suspended.

Volume slipped to 4.67 billion worth RM3.67 billion from 4.77 billion worth RM2.75 billion on Thursday.

Among other heavyweights, PBBank and Tenaga added four sen to RM24.48 and RM12.68 respectively, Maybank shed two sen to RM9.47 while PChem was flat at RM9.25.

Of energy counters, Sapnrg was up 1.5 sen at 36.5 sen and its warrant rose two sen to 13.5 sen while Armada lost half-a-sen to 19 sen and Perdana erased one sen to 47 sen.

Of gainers, Nestle added 70 sen to RM148.70, MPI increased 57 sen to RM10.40, HLBank increased 54 sen to RM21.28, and BAT improved 50 sen to RM34.56.

The FBM Emas Index firmed up 47.98 points to 11,759.18, the FBMT 100 rose 46.98 points to 11,602.72, the FBM Emas Shariah Index was 54.66 points higher at 11,748.08, the FBM Ace Index advanced 38.9 points to 4,834.45 and the FBM 70 was up 79.86 points at 14,209.07.

Sector- wise, the Financial Services index perked 66.87 points to 17,537.11, the Industrial Products and Services Index was 0.48 of-a-point better at 170.70 and the Plantation Index expanded 37.77 points to 7,256.19.

Main Market volume slipped to 3.81 billion shares worth RM3.46 billion from 3.93 billion shares worth RM2.56 billion on Thursday.

Warrants fell to 408.99 million units valued at RM81.37 million from 423.46 million units valued at RM82.42 million previously.

Volume on the ACE Market rose to 447.15 million shares worth RM120.07 million from 416.87 million shares worth RM102.89 million.

Consumer products and services accounted for 434.96 million shares traded on the Main Market, industrial products and services ( 531.44 million), construction ( 218.15 million), technology ( 166.76 million), SPAC (nil), financial services (70.98 million), property (169.95 million), plantation ( 51.65 million), REITs (8.64 million), closed/ fund ( 23,900), energy (1.74 billion), healthcare (124.26 million), telecommunications and media ( 130.66 million), transportation and logistics ( 131.42 million), and utilities (39.21 million).

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