Bursa Malaysia ends marginally higher

Bursa Malaysia’s market bellwether FBM KLCI ended slightly higher yesterday but the overall market remained weak on the heels of the trade tussle between the US and China.

The benchmark FTSE Bursa Malaysia KLCI (FBM KLCI) rose 0.09 per cent or 1.38 points to end at 1,611.79 from Monday’s close of 1,610.41.

The key index, which opened 17.57 points lower at 1,592.84, moved between 1,588.98 and 1,617.22 throughout the day.

On the broader market, losers led gainers by 502 to 436, while 376 counters remained unchanged, 573 untraded and 19 others suspended.

Trading was brisk with turnover increasing to 3.13 billion units worth RM2.62 billion versus Monday’s 2.67 billion units worth RM1.86 billion.

A dealer said the equity markets had somewhat stabilised a er the People’s Bank of China set the yuan fixing at seven per US dollar a er the Chinese currency weakened beyond a closely watched level on Monday.

China’s central bank also rebuked the US’ decision to label the country as a currency manipulator, saying that it would cause a severe damage to the global financial order.

Regionally, Hong Kong’s Hang Seng Index fell 0.67 per cent to 25,976.24, Japan’s Nikkei 225 decreased 0.65 per cent to 20,585.31 and Singapore’s Straits Times Index went down 0.75 per cent to 3,170.47.

Bursa Malaysia’s heavyweights, Maybank added one sen to RM8.59, Public Bank gained four sen to RM21.60, TNB rose six sen to RM13.84, Petronas Chemicals jumped 14 sen to RM7.37, CIMB increased three sen to RM5.06, IHH Healthcare was flat at RM5.68 and Axiata fell 11 sen to RM4.83.

As for the actives, KNM advanced 2.5 sen 38.5 sen, Vsolar edged up half-a-sen to 17.5 sen, Netx and Genting Malaysia were flat at 1.5 sen and RM3.61, respectively, while Sapura Energy shed half-a-sen to 28.5 sen and MYEG eased three sen to RM1.51.

The FBM Emas Index improved 11.97 points to 11,392.49, the FBMT 100 Index bagged 10.78 points to 11,226.67 and the FBM Emas Shariah Index went up 11.48 points to 11,805.11.

The FBM 70 was 18.53 points higher at 14,149.29 and the FBM Ace expanded by 31.81 points at 4,617.86.

Sector-wise, the Financial Services Index gave up 10.64 points to 15,811.39, the Plantation Index shaved off 29.96 points to 6,580.15 and the Industrial Products and Services Index gained 0.79 of-a-point to 151.84.

Main Market volume increased to 2.03 billion shares valued at RM2.38 billion from 1.67 billion shares valued at RM1.66 billion on Monday.