Bursa Malaysia ends higher on escalating demand

KUALA LUMPUR: Bursa Malaysia closed higher yesterday on the back of continued escalating demand, with traders active throughout the day and registering positives across the board in trying to obtain bargains, dealers said.

At 5 pm, the FTSE Bursa Malaysia KLCI (FBM KLCI) closed 17.30 points higher at 1,861.22 from 1,843.92 at last Friday’s close.

After opening 7.74 points better at 1,851.66 this morning, the index hovered between 1,850.62 and 1,861.23 throughout the day.

Public Investment Bank Bhd said in a note that traders were thriving on the notion that relations between the US and North Korea could improve.

Furthermore, the US non-farm payrolls had increased by 313,000 last month - the biggest increase in 18 months – which easily beat forecasts and having a positive global spillover effect.

Market breadth was positive as gainers led losers 558 to 360 with 420 counters unchanged, 538 untraded and 21 others suspended.

Volume rose to 2.46 billion units worth RM2.4 billion from 2.25 billion units worth RM2.01 billion on Friday.

Among heavyweights, Maybank and Public Bank were flat at RM10.44 and RM23.00 respectively, while Tenaga increased eight sen to RM15.62, CIMB rose 12 sen to RM7.27 and Petronas Chemicals was 10 sen better at RM8.08.

Of the active counters, Nexgram rose one sen to five sen, NWP Holdings increased 6.5 sen to 33 sen, Sino Hua-an improved 1.5 sen to 44 sen, while Sapura Energy and Hibiscus Petroleum were flat at 46.5 sen and 89 sen respectively.

The FBM Emas Index increased 141.93 points to 13,110.87, the FBMT 100 Index was 143.98 points better at 12,855.18 and the FBM Emas Shariah Index bagged 171.69 points to 13,294.2.

The FBM 70 rose 259.23 points to 15,682.5 and the FBM Ace edged up 8.19 points to 5,980.05.

Sector-wise, the Industrial Index improved 55.17 points to 3,237.03, the Plantation Index gained 44.04 points to 8,088.2 and the Finance Index was 117.82 points better at 18,110.56.

Main Market volume increased to 1.37 billion units worth RM2.24 billion from 1.33 billion units worth RM1.87 billion on Friday.

Volume on the ACE Market rose to 708.45 million shares valued at RM97.61 million shares from 567.58 million shares valued at RM87.26 million.

Warrants’ volume improved to 382.52 million from 56.6 million from 347.52 million worth RM48.74 million.

Consumer products accounted for 135.02 million shares traded on the Main Market, industrial products (443.76 million), construction (73.32 million), trade and services (485.98 million), technology (49.51 million), infrastructure (6.49 million), SPAC (738,000), finance (54.59 million), hotels (430,200), properties (92.84 million), plantations (20.18 million), mining (257,200), REITs (8.09 million), and closed/fund (113,900).

For further information on stocks and prices, please visit www.bursamalaysia.com.