Bursa Malaysia bucks regional trend to end higher

Bursa Malaysia bucked the regional trend to end higher yesterday, thanks to buying support in the selected heavyweights, led by Tenaga and Press Metal despite weak global market sentiment.

The benchmark FTSE Bursa Malaysia KLCI (FBM KLCI) rose 4.2 points to finish at 1,639.07 from Wednesday’s close of 1,634.87, thus snapping its threesession losing streak.

Tenaga, which is enroute for internal restructuring, soared 22 sen to RM14.04 with 18.47 million shares changing hands, while Press Metal, which recently secured a long-term electricity supply contract from Sarawak Energy Bhd, chalked up 31 sen to RM4.86 with 16.58 million shares transacted.

Both stocks contributed a combine of 4.381 points to the rise in composite index.

On the broader market, there were 482 losers, 348 gainers, while 420 counters remained unchanged, 639 untraded and 28 others suspended.

Turnover rose to 2.45 billion units worth RM2.02 billion from Wednesday’s close of 2.75 billion units valued at RM2.75 billion.

Rakuten Trade Sdn Bhd vicepresident of research Vincent Lau said Bursa Malaysia was weaker in the early trade, but managed to reverse the trend a er bargain-hunting emerged during midday as investors accumulated low value stocks following the recent sell-off.

“Sentiment in the local market was still weak, reflecting to the higher losers than gainers. Some bargain-hunting in selected blue-chips did help the market bucked regional trend,” he told Bernama.

Resistance level is now located at 1,660, while support level stands at 1,630, he projected.

Another dealer said most Asian stocks were dragged further into the red following the slip in US stocks, as investors were disappointed that the US Federal Reserve cut interest rates to cushion the American economy from the effects of the trade war with China, but refrained from suggesting further rate cuts were on the way.

Meanwhile, the US and China wrapped up their trade talks in Shanghai without any deal despite negotiators from both economic powerhouses indicated the talks as “constructive”.

Among heavyweights, Maybank rose four sen to RM8.69, IHH Healthcare gained two sen to RM5.76, while CIMB was flat at RM5.08. Public Bank lost eight sen to RM21.82 and Petronas Chemicals shed two sen to RM7.47. As for the actives, Netx and KNM were flat at 1.5 sen and 40.5 sen, respectively, Priceworth inched up half-a-sen to seven sen, ARB added three sen to 47 sen, while Sapura Energy slipped half-asen to 29.5 sen. — Bernama