FBM KLCI closes at historic high of 1,752.02 points

KUALA LUMPUR: The FTSE Bursa Malaysia KLCI ( FBM KLCI) closed at a historic high of 1,752.02 points yesterday, up 57.25 points from Friday’s close, dealers said.

The key index which also hit an all-time intra-day high of 1,826.22 at 9.04 am, was boosted by a buying spree in heavyweight counters, after the ruling Barisan Nasional coalition retained power in the 13th General Election.

The FBM KLCI hovered between 1,743.14 and 1,826.22 in trading yesterday with a positive market breadth of 870 gainers as compared to 83 losers, with 132 counters unchanged, 526 untraded and 32 others suspended.

Bursa Malaysia’s previous all-time and intra- day highs were registered on April 30 at 1,717.65 points and 1,718.44 points, respectively.

Hwang Investment Management Bhd investment officer David Ng said given that the ruling party would continue in power, and the election overhang was past, the local bourse was expected to continue its ascension with investors starting to deploy their cash which had been sidelined, awaiting the outcome of the election.

“We are expecting a surge in buying activities led by foreign and local institutional investors, attracted by Bursa Malaysia’s lagging market performance against that of regional peers and strong economic fundamentals such as good foreign direct investment, a positive investment cycle as well as strong consumer confidence,” he added.

On the scoreboard, the Finance Index surged 631.119 points to 16,482.61, the Plantation Index jumped 165.95 points to 8,129.86, and the Industrial Index gained 62.42 points to 2,898.44.

The FBM Emas Index soared 423.30 points to 11,980.27 and the FBMT100 chalked up 410.03 points to 11,815.95.

The FBM Mid 70 Index advanced 561.67 points to 13,323.05 and the FBM Ace Index rose 161.51 points to 4,063.63.

Leading the gainers list was British American Tobacco which improved RM1.64 to RM64, with Petronas Dagangan gaining RM1.06 to RM24.26, Aeon Credit earning RM1.02 to RM15.24, CIMB garnering 74 sen to RM8.35 and Genting advancing 67 sen to RM10.66.

Patimas Computers topped the actives list, adding one sen to 4.5 sen, Malaysia Airlines gained 4.5 sen to 40.5 sen, SapuraKencana earned 40 sen to RM3.45, UEM Land chalked up 34 sen to RM2.98 and Gamuda rose 37 sen to RM4.41.

Of the heavyweights, Maybank added 39 sen to RM9.98, Axiata gained 17 sen to RM6.77, Sime Darby earned seven sen to RM9.43, Petronas Chemicals was up 12 sen to RM6.60 and Tenaga garnered 39 sen to RM8.17.

Total volume almost doubled to 1.911 billion shares worth RM4.99 billion from Friday’s 933.243 million shares worth RM2.315 billion. Volume on the Main Market rose to 1.71 billion valued at RM4.95 billion from last week’s 803.78 million shares valued at RM2.28 billion.

Turnover on the ACE market increased to 111.9 million shares worth RM19.91 million from 90.52 million shares worth RM15.37 million previously.

Warrants more than doubled to 87.52 million units valued at RM105.92 million from the 37.62 million shares valued at RM3.197 million on Friday.

Consumer products accounted for 57.35 million shares on the Main Market, industrial products 140.98 million, construction 173.72 million, trade and services 656 million, technology 134.15 million, infrastructure 39.81 million, SPAC 37.83 million, finance 201.40 million, hotels 1.14 million, properties 239.13 million, plantations 18.06 million, mining 105,500, REITs 10.98 million and closed/fund 106,200. — Bernama