Local bourse bucks regional trend to end higher

PETALING JAYA: The local market appeared resilient and saw broad gains for the bigger-capitalised stocks despite a weaker sentiment in Asia and Europe.

Gains for the benchmark FBM KLCI were mainly attributed to the glove makers after earnings from Supermax Corp Bhd confirmed expectations of bumper earnings, resulting in Top Glove Corp Bhd adding 86 sen to RM11.66 and Hartalega Holdings Bhd rising 58 sen to RM10.00.

Supermax shares closed up 81 sen to RM5.40.

Commodity linked KLCI constituent stocks also propped up the index, with Petronas Gas Bhd up RM1.94 to RM17.12, Petronas Chemicals Group Bhd gaining 33 sen to RM6.17 and KL Kepong Bhd adding 58 sen to RM21.86.

The FBM KLCI ended the day higher, bucking its Asian peers, and the benchmark index gained 16.99 points or 1.18% to 1,452.11.

“There are some apparent factors that appear to be driving this market upwards and this includes the fear of missing out on gains and expectations that the Covid-19 pandemic has been fully factored into prices,” said Rakuten vice-president of equity research Vincent Lau.

“It is possible that more gains could be had, as it has been on an uptrend for some time and these are mostly sentiment-driven. Volumes have also remained healthy with participation from retailers.

“There is notably a lot more retail participation this time around,” Lau said.

He said that yesterday’s trading sentiment had also been boosted by Malayan Banking Bhd (Maybank), which posted a strong set of results.

Maybank reported at noon yesterday that its first-quarter ended March 31 net profit rose 13.2% to Rm2.05bil from Rm1.81bil a year ago.

The country’s biggest bank by asset size saw its shares adding two sen to RM7.51 by its close yesterday as it had also warned of the cautious outlook from the ongoing pandemic.

“As long as volumes continue to hold up, I don’t think the market will drop too much,” Lau said.

The broader Bursa Malaysia market was, however, more mixed but gainers still outnumbered losers 558 to 430, with 405 counters unchanged and 505 stocks not being traded.

Trading volume remained on the high side with 7.15 billion shares worth Rm4.66bil changing hands.