FBM KLCI ends 16.60 points higher

KUALA LUMPUR: The FTSE Bursa Malaysia KLCI ( FBM KLCI) ended the day broadly higher on sustained buying interest in finance and consumer stocks.

At 5pm, the benchmark index surged 16.60 points to settle at 1,870.52 from Friday’s close of 1,853.92. It opened 1.17 points higher at 1,855.09.

The market barometer moved between 1,855.09 and 1,870.52 throughout the day.

However, market breadth was negative with losers thumping gainers 623 to 370, while 396 counters were unchanged, 476 untraded and 75 others suspended.

Turnover eased to three billion units valued at RM2.49 billion from last Friday’s 3.19 billion units valued at RM2.45 billion.

Inter- Pacific Securities Sdn Bhd Head of Research Pong Teng Siew said sustained foreign buying interest propped up the benchmark index with the focus on the banking stocks, albeit negative overall market.

“Foreign buyers are optimistic that banks lending margin will improve in line with the hike of Overnight Policy Rate (OPR) as announced by Bank Negara Malaysia (BNM) last week,” he told Bernama.

Last Thursday, BNM increased the OPR by 25 basis points to 3.25 per cent at the Monetary Policy Meeting as it decided to normalise the degree of monetary accommodation amid the economy being firmly on a steady growth path.

Finance stocks, Public Bank surged 60 sen to RM21.90, Maybank expanded 12 sen to RM10.20, Hong Leong Bank soared 46 sen to RM18.66, and CIMB advanced 10 sen to RM7.16.

Other heavyweights, Petronas Chemicals was five sen higher at RM8.03, Axiata gained six sen to RM5.68 while TNB and Maxis were flat at RM15.84 and RM6.08, respectively.

Top gainers Nestle increased RM1.60 to RM113.10, Dutch Lady added 32 sen to RM63.32 and Ajinomoto rose 30 sen to RM1.10.

Among actives, Perisai Petroleum edged up half-a-sen to seven sen, Borneo Oil was flat at 8.5 sen, Sumatec edged down half-a-sen to 9.5 sen, UMW Oil & Gas trimmed one sen to 33.5 sen, AirAsia X shed three sen to 40.5 sen, and Sapura Energy eased 2.5 sen to 77.5 sen.

The FBM Emas Index improved 68.43 points to 13,442.93, the FBMT 100 Index went up 77.39 points to 13,124.11 and the FBM Emas Shariah Index bagged 15.23 points to 13,753.68.

The FBM 70 fell 32.82 points to 16,710.34 and the FBM Ace slipped 87.02 points to 6,586.91.

Sector-wise, the Finance Index surged 269.4 points to 17,940.77, the Plantation Index fell 12.95 points to 8,068.26, but the Industrial Index gained 4.45 points to 3,402.66.

The Main Market rose to 1.96 billion units worth RM2.32 billion from 1.9 billion units worth RM2.22 billion last Friday.

Volume on the ACE Market declined to 584.57 million shares valued at RM101.24 million from 611.21 million shares valued at RM121.51 million previously.

Warrants volume was lower at 451.03 million units worth RM70.36 million from 672.94 million units worth RM99.87 million.

Consumer products accounted for 143.32 million shares traded on the Main Market, industrial products (351.30 million), construction (95.57 million), trade and services (1.07 billion), technology (77.08 million), infrastructure (8.90 million), SPAC (1.20 million), finance (73.61 million), hotels (931,700), properties, (72.87 million), plantations (59.18 million), mining (410,500), REITs (53.10 million), and closed/fund (26,000).

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