Bursa Malaysia rebounds on lastminute buying

KUALA LUMPUR: Bursa Malaysia snapped its two-day losing streak to close higher yesterday, with its benchmark index rebounding on last-minute buying, thanks to gains in rubber glove counters and other selected heavyweights.

At 5pm, the FBM KLCI ended 0.57 of-a-point higher at 1,598.28 against Tuesday’s close of 1,597.71.

The index, which opened 2.48 points better at 1,600.19 this morning, fluctuated between 1,592.87 and 1,601.37 throughout the day.

Supermax was the biggest gainer among the 30-index constituents after rising 14 sen to RM4.60 with 16.6 million shares changing hands.

Other rubber glove makers – Top Glove picked up five sen to RM5.13 while Hartalega added one sen to RM9.47.

The day’s trading was also supported by recovery in small cap stocks as bargain-hunting emerged following the recent sell-off, which saw the FBM Small Cap Index climbed 96.2 points to end at 17,306.07.

On the broader market, losers and gainers were almost equal 510 and 502, while 689 counters were unchanged, 476 untraded and eight others suspended.

Total volume decreased to 5.91 billion shares worth RM2.99 billion from 6.39 billion shares valued at RM3.06 billion on Tuesday.

Axi chief global markets strategist Stephen Innes said the recent Covid-19 upsurge in the region is hurting sentiment at the moment, but interest remains in rubber gloves and healthcare.

“Until the Covid situation clears up, we could still be in a two steps forward and one step back affair,” he told Bernama.

In general, he said, sentiment in the global equities were underpinned by a very dovish stance by the US Federal Reserve which helped ease inflation fears in the market.

Fed chairman Jerome Powell said although March inflation beat expectations, the central bank is likely to remain unmoved or alter its record-low interest rate policies as the current higher inflation is just temporary.

Earlier, Bursa moved in volatile trading and bucked regional trend most of the time as investors were cautious over a possible tightening in financial conditions in China which is very much unfavourable for a country that has strong export trade ties with China, such as Malaysia.

Of the heavyweights, IHH Healthcare added one sen to RM5.40 and CIMB gained five sen to RM4.28.

Maybank slipped one sen to RM8.31, Public Bank lost three sen to RM4.20, Tenaga was down four sen to RM10.16, while Petronas Chemicals was flat at RM7.88.

Among the active counters, Minda trimmed 2.5 sen to 15 sen, Lambo was flat at two sen, Ucrest gained 3.5 sen to 30.5 sen.