Bursa ends at day’s high again Bernama

BURSA Malaysia rebounded to close at its intraday high for the second consecutive day yesterday after trading in negative territory for most part of the day, lifted by financial related heavyweight counters.

At 5pm, the benchmark FTSE Bursa Malaysia KLCI (FBM KLCI) was up 3.18 points at 1,606.74 compared with Monday’s close of 1,603.56.

The key index opened 4.49 points lower at 1,599.07, which was also its intraday low.

On the broader market, losers edged gainers by 425 to 403, while 407 counters were unchanged, 713 untraded and 16 others suspended.

Volume expanded to 2.6 billion shares worth RM2.25 billion from 2.5 billion shares worth RM1.85 billion previously.

An analyst said the local market’s upbeat performance was in line with the positive market sentiment as Bank Negara Malaysia had retained its Overnight Policy Rate at three per cent.

“Bank Negara is positive that despite the headwinds, the local economy would continue to grow at a moderate pace.

“This decision has lifted the financial stocks that have been under pressure since morning. Most financial stocks closed higher,” she said.

Among heavyweight financial stocks, Maybank gained three sen to RM8.66, Public Bank went up six sen to RM19.86, CIMB Group rose eight sen to RM5.33, RHB Bank inched up one sen to RM5.76 and AMMB climbed eight sen to RM4.10.

For actives, IFCA MSC shed halfa-sen to 54 sen, Multi Sports gained half-a-sen to 1.5 sen and Velesto Energy was flat at 36 sen.

Kuala Lumpur Kepong led the top gainers list, increasing 30 sen to RM22.28, while United Plantations and Southern Acid gained 20 sen to RM25.18 and RM3.80, respectively.

For top losers, Nestle shed 70 sen to RM146.40, British American Tobacco declined 48 sen to RM17.68, Panasonic Manufacturing dipped 20 sen to RM37.80 and Press Metal declined 13 sen to RM4.67.

Main Market volume narrowed to 1.73 billion shares worth RM2.00 billion from Monday’s 1.77 billion shares worth RM1.65 billion.

Warrants turnover increased to 327.55 million units worth RM59.46 million from 289.75 million units valued at RM49.84 million on Monday.

Volume on the ACE Market rose to 555.56 million shares worth RM188.00 million from 488.57 million shares worth RM148.06 million previously.

The FBM KLCI futures contract on Bursa Malaysia Derivatives closed on a mixed note despite the upward momentum in the underlying cash market.

At the close, spot month November 2019 and March 2020 were flat at 1,604.5 and 1,603.0, respectively, while December 2019 added 0.5 point to 1,607.0.

July 2020, meanwhile, declined 0.5 point to 1,602.5.

Turnover rose to 8,335 lots from 8,090 while open interest declined to 36,690 contracts from 36,944 contracts previously.