Bursa inches up on last-minute buying

LAST-MINUTE buying lifted Bursa Malaysia to end in positive territory yesterday, ahead of another long weekend.

The FTSE Bursa Malaysia KLCI (FBM KLCI) rose slightly by 0.25 of a point to 1,601.25, compared with 1,601 on Thursday.

The market barometer moved between a low of 1,596.33 and a high of 1,603.68 yesterday.

Inter-Pacific Securities Sdn Bhd head of research Pong Teng Siew said the market managed to reduce losses recorded in the morning session amid fresh trading cues.

“The focus was on specific stocks that have been showing earnings growth, not so (much) on sector play, which doesn’t provide much clues.

“As a result, the FBM KLCI is locked in a tight range, trading plus

minus and a few points around the 1,600 level, this week,” he said.

In addition, Pong said investors also seemed to focus on a few defensive consumer-type stocks.

“This is a defensive play. As the market enters an optimistic outlook stage, these stocks will no more be in focus,” he said, adding that financial counters did well this week amid strong loan approval.

For next week, he said: “Investors are likely to focus on stocks that have presented or reported good earnings in the previous quarter.”

Of the heavyweights, Hap Seng rose 13 sen to RM9.90, AmBank was 12 sen higher at RM4.17, CIMB added two sen to RM5.02 and Axiata edged up four sen to RM4.27. Maybank was flat at RM8.90 and Petronas Dagangan went up 20 sen to RM23.30.

Of the actives, Bumi Armada rose three sen to 30.5 sen, I-Stone gained 2.5 sen to 20 sen and Vsolar went down half-a-sen to 10 sen.

The FBM Emas Index advanced 28.26 points to 11,311.33, the FBMT100 Index appreciated 28.18 points to 11,146.06 and the FBM Emas Shariah Index rose 25.69 points to 11,832.10.

The FBM ACE up 28.22 points to 4,557.01 and the FBM 70 jumped 144.77 points to 14,017.89.

There were 450 gainers and 324 losers on Bursa Malaysia yesterday, while 419 counters remained unchanged, 786 untraded and 23 others suspended.

Turnover was 2.10 billion units worth RM1.50 billion from 1.89 billion units valued at RM1.74 billion on Thursday.

Main Market volume rose slightly to 1.28 billion shares worth RM1.34 billion. That of the ACE Market expanded to 424.85 million shares worth RM89.07 million.

The FBM KLCI futures contract on Bursa Malaysia Derivatives also closed stronger yesterday.

Spot month September 2019 and December 2019 rose 4.0 points each to 1,594 and 1,597, respectively.

October 2019 and March 2020 added 3.5 points each to 1,595.5 and 1,591, respectively.

Turnover, however, decreased to 4,557 lots from 6,099 lots, while open interest eased to 31,665 contracts from 32,572 contracts on Thursday.

Bursa Malaysia will be closed on Monday for the Malaysia Day holiday.