Bursa ends week on positive note

BURSA Malaysia ended the week on a positive note, prompted by institutional support.

At 5pm, the benchmark FTSE Bursa Malaysia KLCI (FBM KLCI) was 0.40 points higher at 1,609.73 compared with Thursday’s close of 1,609.33.

The key index opened 2.24 points lower at 1,607.09 and moved between 1,606.02 and 1,614.19 throughout the day.

Gainers beat losers 419 against 412, with 449 counters unchanged, 713 untraded and 16 suspended.

Among heavyweights, banking counters were among the top performers, with Maybank and Public Bank both gaining eight sen to RM8.83 and RM19.94, respectively, while CIMB Group added 10 sen to RM5.40. PetChem rose five sen to RM7.65 and Axiata climbed seven sen to RM4.37.

Of the actives, Sapura Energy inched up 2.5 sen to 29.5 sen while market debutant Spring Art, Trive Property and NETX were flat at 25 sen, 1.5 sen, and two sen, respectively.

For top gainers, Vstecs rose 19 sen to RM1.25, Shangri-La Hotels surged 29 sen to RM5.29, and Dufu Technology and Tasek Corporation advanced 13 sen to RM2.94 and RM5.50, respectively.

Among the top losers, Nestle shed RM1.20 to RM145.70, Kuala Lumpur Kepong declined 40 sen to RM22.50 and United Plantations dipped 30 sen to RM25.58.

The FBM Emas Index was 6.34 higher at 11,395.72, the FBMT 100 Index gained 5.01 points to 11,207.06 and the FBM Emas Shariah Index decreased 26.02 points to 11,893.78.

The FBM ACE declined 6.37 points to 4,980.41 and the FBM 70 was 15.34 points firmer at 14,102.56.

Sector-wise, the Financial Services Index added 80.14 points to 15,771.55, the Industrial Products & Services Index edged up 0.06 ofa-point to 154.95 and the Plantation Index slid 23.60 to 6,875.15.

Main Market volume rose to 2.19 billion shares worth RM1.92 billion compared with 1.90 billion shares worth RM1.69 billion on Thursday.

Warrants turnover declined to 285.73 million units worth RM56.94 million from 430.23 million units worth RM78.96 million previously.

Volume on the ACE Market increased to 624.02 million units worth RM167.85 million from 475.15 million worth RM121.94 million.

The FBM KLCI futures contract on Bursa Malaysia Derivatives closed lower yesterday despite the positive momentum on the underlying cash market.

At close, spot month November 2019 was down 3.0 points to 1,611.0, December 2019 declined 3.5 points to 1,612.0, March 2020 dipped 1.0 point to 1,609.0, while June 2020 was 2.5 points lower at 1,607.5.

Turnover decreased slightly to 6,713 lots from 6,920 on Thursday while open interest increased to 34,711 contracts from 33,547 previously.