Bursa Malaysia closes higher on window-dressing

KUALA LUMPUR: Bursa Malaysia closed higher yesterday on strong buying support due to window-dressing as well as the increase in oil prices.

The benchmark FTSE Bursa Malaysia KLCI (FBM KLCI) rose by 9.68 points to 1,746.63 from Tuesday’s close of 1,736.95.

The index opened 1.03 points easier at 1,735.92 and moved between 1,735.44 and 1,751.95 throughout the day.

On the broader market, gainers outpaced losers by 490 to 396 with 415 counters unchanged, 566 counters untraded and 34 others suspended.

Total volume fell to 2.53 billion shares worth RM2.26 billion from Tuesday’s 3.17 billion shares valued at RM2.90 billion.

Malaysian Association of Technical Analysts Professional member, Amir Hassan, said the market saw heavy trading in banks and technology-related stocks, as Malaysia’s Consumer Price Index (CPI) rose 3.4 per cent to 120.8 on a year-on-year basis in November 2017 from 116.8 previously.

“The higher CPI would give further cause for Bank Negara Malaysia to raise interest rates for January,” he told Bernama.

Among heavyweights, Maybank bagged one sen to RM9.50, Public Bank gained 22 sen to RM20.72, while Tenaga slipped four sen to RM14.86 and Petronas Chemicals fell one sen to RM7.48. Of the actives, Diversified Gateway Solutions and PUC each added half-a-sen to 12.5 sen and 32 sen, respectively, while MQ Technology improved one sen to 7.5 sen.

The FBM Emas Index rose 74.72 points to 12,585.59, the FBMT 100 Index was 76.52 points higher at 12,256.55 and the FBM 70 surged 126.19 points to 15,611.23.

The FBM Ace jumped 115.30 points to 6,469.14 and the FBM Emas Shariah Index was up 60.29 points to 12,909.33.

Sector wise, the Finance Index perked 133.00 points to 16,609.34 but the Plantation Index lost 0.7 of-a-point to 7,789.42 and the Industrial Index slid 3.18 points to 3,142.55.

The Main Market volume fell to 1.19 billion units worth RM2.02 billion compared with 1.60 billion units worth RM2.64 billion on Tuesday.

Volume on the ACE Market declined to 1.04 billion shares valued at RM182.35 million from 1.32 billion shares valued at RM206.07 million previously.

Warrants volume improved to 274.38 million units worth RM41.68 million from 215.47 million units valued at RM46.16 million on Tuesday.

Consumerproductsaccounted for 41.82 million shares traded on the Main Market, industrial products (319.77 million), construction (45.08 million), trade and services (411.72 million), technology ( 165.19 million), infrastructure (12.57 million), SPAC (3.93 million), finance (75.99 million), hotels (444,400), properties (91.13 million), plantations (22.51 million), mining (16,000), REITs (7.90 million), and closed/fund (87,200).

For further information on stocks and prices, please visit www.bursamalaysia.com.