Bursa Malaysia extends gains for third day running

KUALA LUMPUR: Bursa Malaysia extended gains for the third day yesterday, spurred by last-hour buying in selected heavyweights. The benchmark FTSE Bursa Malaysia KLCI (FBM KLCI) went up 4.21 points to intraday peak of 1,727.99 from Thursday’s close of 1,723.78.

The key index, which opened 1.32 points lower at 1,722.46, moved to as low as 1,721.10, before ending at the peak.

Market breadth, however, was negative with losers outpacing gainers by 422 to 326 with 395 counters unchanged, 587 counters untraded and 18 others suspended. Total volume shrank to 1.58 billion shares worth RM1.70 billion from 1.63 billion shares worth RM1.95 billion on Thursday.

A dealer said last-hour buying in the telecommunication and finance-linked counters pushed the key index higher.

YTL Corporation rose seven sen to RM1.69, RHB Capital surged 18 sen to RM6.28, CIMB Group bagged five sen to RM4.97 and AMMB Holdings rose 10 sen to RM4.60, while top weighted Maybank advanced two sen to RM9.17.

“But the sentiment also turned cautious over a weekend meeting of the oil producers, turning some traders to remain on the sidelines,” he added.

Oil producers led by top exporters, Saudi Arabia and Russia planned to meet in Qatar on Sunday to discuss freezing output to rein in ballooning global over-production.

Among active stocks, AirAsia X and its warrant (A) both gained 3.5 sen to 34.5 sen and 19 sen, respectively, Eka Noodles added half-a-sen to 15 sen, Vivocom eased 1.5 sen to 31 sen, while DBE Gurney was flat at 5 sen.

The FBM Emas Index rose 26.75 points to 11,997.07, the FBMT100 Index was up 28.67 points to 11,693.21, while the FBM Emas Syariah Index added 12.31 points to 12,539.76.

The FBM 70 gained 33.21 points to 13,326.04 while the FBM Ace fell 44.64 points to 5,722.42.

Sector-wise, the Finance Index surged 75.29 points to 15,034.70, the Industrial Index eased 1.38 points to 3,290.97 and the Plantation Index increased 9.36 points to 7,785.25.

Main Market turnover strengthened to 1.20 billion units worth RM1.63 billion from Thursday’s 1.15 billion units worth RM1.86 billion.

The ACE Market turnover dropped to 251.07 million shares valued at RM50.57 million from 280.47 million shares valued at RM61.32 million on Thursday.

Warrants declined to 131.38 million units worth RM16.94 million from 199.06 million units worth RM26.13 million previously.

Consumer products accounted for 194.41 million shares traded on the Main Market, industrial products (175.46 million), construction (52.53 million), trade and services (585.98 million), technology (20.80 million), infrastructure (3.41 million), SPAC (29.51 million), finance (39.54 million), hotels (2.31 million), properties (78.01 million), plantations (16.98 million), mining (0), REITs (2.63 million), and closed/fund (39,000).