Bargain hunting lifts Bursa Malaysia higher at close

KUALA LUMPUR: Bursa Malaysia reversed Wednesday’s losses to finish higher yesterday driven by bargain hunting in value stocks, particularly blue chips banking counters, following easing tensions between the United States (US) and Iran.

At the closing bell, the benchmark FTSE Bursa Malaysia KLCI (FBM KLCI) went up 6.55 points, or 0.41 per cent, to 1,595.65 compared with 1,589.10 at previous day’s close.

On the broader market, advancers outpaced decliners 601 to 254 while 358 counters were unchanged, 732 untraded and 16 others suspended. Volume shrank to 2.83 billion shares worth RM1.89 billion from 3.86 billion shares worth RM2.22 billion Wednesday.

Apart from banking counters which appeal to bargain hunters, Malacca Securities Sdn Bhd senior analyst Kenneth Leong said plantation stocks also fared well during yesterday’s trading a er Indonesia announced plan to start road tests for B40 biodiesel programme starting April this year.

“The news had triggered buying interest in plantation-linked counters,” he told Bernama.

Gains in the FBM KLCI 30 component stocks were led by Maybank, increasing 11 sen to RM8.65, CIMB advanced seven sen to RM5.24 and AMMB Holdings strengthened eight sen to RM3.88. All three plantation heavyweights also rose, with KLK bagging 18 sen to RM24.68, IOI Corporation perked up three sen to RM4.70 and Sime Darby Plantation was two sen be er at RM5.45.

On energy-related stocks’ performance, Leong said although the de-escalation of the US-Iran conflict dragged the Brent crude oil price lower to about US$65.80 today against over US$70 per barrel on Monday, the impact was relatively mild as the Energy Index on the local bourse only slid 0.46-of-a-point at the close.

Petronas Dagangan fell 32 sen to RM22.76, Petronas Chemicals declined 16 sen to RM7.31 while Petronas Gas ticked up four sen to RM17.00. Among actives, Dataprep went up five sen to 27.5 sen, Vortex eased one sen to 21 sen while Priceworth International and Sapura Energy were unchanged at three sen and 28 sen respectively.

Top gainer Hong Leong Financial added 44 sen to RM17.44 while top loser Nestle retreated RM1.30 to RM144.90.

The FBM Emas Index firmed 56.25 points to 11,361.91 and the FBM Emas Shariah Index was 39.38 points higher at 11,989.64.

The FBMT 100 Index increased 49.90 points to 11,157.70, the FBM 70 rose 80.57 points to 14,241.37 and the FBM Ace was 120.02 points be er at 5,500.67.

Sector-wise, the Financial Services Index climbed 107.0 points to 15,559.84 and the Plantation Index advanced 45.63 points to 7,686.29, but the Industrial Products and Services Index edged down 0.71 of-a-point to 153.86. — Bernama