Bursa M’sia rebounds to end marginally higher on late buying
KUALA LUMPUR: Bursa Malaysia closed margin ally higher yesterday, with its key index rebounding on last-minute buying in tandem with the recovery in the broader market, thanks to gains in Top Glove, other selected heavy weights and small-capitalisation stocks.
The FTSE Bursa Malaysia KLCI (FBM KLCI) rose 0.13 of-a-point to end the week at 1,608.38 against Thursday’s close of 1,608.25.
The barometer index, which opened 0.81 of-a-point weaker at 1,607.44 this morning, fluctuated between 1,600.3 and 1,609.76 throughout the session.
Top Glove was the largest contributor to the gains in the composite index with 2.03 points, a er rising 13 sen to RM5.57, while Supermax was the biggest gainer among the 30-constituent index as it increased 4.12 per cent.
Sentiment in the market was relatively weak during the morning trading session, weighed by concerns over rising Covid-19 cases in the country.
However, the overall market breadth slowly turned positive during the a ernoon session with gainers beating losers to end at 516 versus 501, while 484 counters were unchanged, 676 untraded, and 25 others suspended.
Total volume increased to 6.56 billion shares worth RM4.39 billion from 6.52 billion shares valued at RM4.74 billion on Thursday.
“Risk-off mode initially dominated the market as the Covid-19 infections in the country started to show an uptrend, which could be detrimental to the economic recovery.
“Nevertheless, last-minute buying crept into the market with rubber glove counters a racting investors interest amid sustained demand for rubber gloves due to the new wave of Covid-19 infections,” Bank Islam Malaysia Bhd economist Adam Mohamed Rahim told Bernama.
The daily tally of new Covid19 cases in Malaysia surged to 2,148 yesterday from 1,889 a day earlier. The last time the country recorded more than 2,000 daily cases was on March 5, with 2,154 cases.
This, however, helped to push the Healthcare Index higher by 24.18 points to 3,171.12.
Adam said other catalysts that might have provided a fillip to the local market sentiment were the United States retails sales, which recorded the biggest gain in 10 months in March, and China’s gross domestic product grew by 18.3 per cent year-on-year in the first quarter of 2021 – the fastest expansion in three decades.
On the home front, heavyweights Petronas Chemicals gained two sen to RM7.93 and IHH Healthcare rose four sen to RM5.39.
Maybank trimmed two sen to RM8.28, Public Bank edged down three sen to RM4.20, while Tenaga lost four sen to RM10.08.
Among the active counters, Ucrest went up 5.5 sen to 35 sen, Focus dipped nine sen to 15 sen, Minda inched down half-a-sen to 15.5 sen, LKL declined 2.5 sen to 31.5 sen, while Key Asic added one sen to 15 sen.