Bursa rises on buying in plantation stocks

BURSA Malaysia yesterday ended slightly higher on continued buying support in plantation counters, namely Sime Darby Plantation, KLK and United Plantations, as well as small-cap stocks.

However, the bullish momentum was capped by profit-taking in finance-related counters.

At 5pm, the benchmark FTSE Bursa Malaysia KLCI (FBM KLCI) edged up 1.58 points to 1,609.73, compared with Monday’s close of 1,608.15.

The key index opened 4.03 points higher at 1,612.18 and moved between 1,605.71 and 1,614.21 throughout the day.

Gainers beat losers 416 against 397, with 429 counters unchanged, 751 untraded and 19 others suspended. Volume widened to 2.49 billion shares worth RM1.82 billion from yesterday’s 2.37 billion shares worth RM1.64 billion.

Among the heavyweights, Maybank slipped six sen to RM8.79, TNB lost 12 sen to RM13.68, and Public Bank eased two sen to RM19.98, but PetChem was nine sen better at RM7.80.

Of the actives, Sapura Energy was flat at 29 sen, Bumi Armada gained 1.5 sen to 49.5 sen, and both Velesto Energy and DGB were half-a-sen higher at 39 sen and 17.5 sen, respectively.

Among the top losers, Fraser & Neave erased 40 sen to RM34.60, Shangri-La lost 22 sen to RM5.07 and Malaysia Airports fell 15 sen to RM8.20.

The FBM Emas Index added 11.01 points to 11,401.00, the FBMT 100 Index rose 8.61 points to 11,213.62, the FBM Emas Shariah Index increased 54.48 points to 11,939.75 and FBM 70 was 0.92 of-a-point better at 14,137.95, while FBM ACE fell 1.16 points to 4,883.50.

Sector-wise, the Financial Services Index depreciated 75.48 points to 15,701.91, the Industrial Products & Services Index edged up 0.93 ofa-point to 156.38 and the Plantation Index expanded 100.49 points to 6,968.69.

Main Market volume rose to 1.7 billion shares worth RM1.63 billion from 1.61 billion shares worth RM1.47 billion.

Warrants turnover decreased to 329.30 million units worth RM60.34 million versus 383.16 million units worth RM73.16 million.

Volume on the ACE Market grew to 456.54 million units worth RM125.23 million compared with 380.56 million units worth RM91.58 million previously.

The FBM KLCI futures contract on Bursa Malaysia Derivatives closed higher.

At the close, spot month November 2019 rose 4.5 points to 1,613.0, December 2019 increased four points to 1,614.0, March 2020 gained 5.5 points to 1,611.0, while distant month June 2020 was eight points higher at 1,609.5.

Turnover improved to 6,466 lots from 6,079 on Monday, while open interest expanded to 33,943 contracts from 33,139 previously.