Bursa Malaysia bucks regional trend, CI ends at intraday high

KUALA LUMPUR: Bursa Malaysia rebounded from earlier losses to close higher yesterday, bucking the downtrend in regional stock markets, spurred by late bargain hunting in selected index-linked counters, dealers said.

At 5 pm, the FTSE Bursa Malaysia KLCI (FBM KLCI) rose 4.54 points to finish at an intraday high of 1,585.14 compared with 1,580.60 on Tuesday’s close.

The index, which mostly moved in the negative territory throughout the day, dipped to low of 1,573.92 earlier in the morning session. Public Bank was the biggest contributor to the rise in the composite index with 2.872 points a er soaring 42 sen to RM19.56 with 3.03 million shares changing hands.

Other significant contributors were Maxis and Press Metal contributing a combined 3.075 points.

“Market sentiment was weak regionally and the recent selling has made some stocks a ractive for accumulation,” a dealer said.

Market breadth was negative with 471 losers and 339 gainers, while 423 counters remained unchanged, 734 were untraded and 18 others suspended.

Turnover was slightly lower at 2.54 billion shares worth RM1.68 billion versus Tuesday’s 2.65 billion shares worth RM1.77 billion. Another dealer said most Asian bourses declined today ahead of the signing of the USChina phase one trade deal.

“Sentiment in the market tumbled a er US Treasury Secretary commented that Washington will not remove tariffs on Chinese imports until a er the 2020 presidential election.

“This has pushed investors away while they await fresh leads from the signing of the trade pact,” he said.

Regionally, Hong Kong’s Hang Seng Index retreated 0.39 per cent to 28,773.59, Japan’s Nikkei 225 decreased 0.45 per cent to 23,916.58 and Singapore’s Straits Times Index fell 0.41 per cent to 3,256.98.

Of the other heavyweights, Maybank eased five sen to RM8.60, Petronas Chemicals edged down six sen to RM7.03, while both Tenaga and CIMB were flat at RM12.90 and RM5.18 respectively.

Among the actives, Vortex slipped 1.5 sen to 13.5 sen, Yong Tai, Xidelang and London Biscuits eased one sen each to 15 sen, 13 sen and 2.5 sen respectively, but TH Heavy gained two sen to 12 sen.

On the scoreboard, the FBM Emas Index put on 19.97 points to 11,303.17, FBMT 100 Index improved 19.03 points to 11,091.46, and the FBM ACE bagged 9.62 points to 5,560.07. However, the FBM Emas Shariah Index slid 3.26 points to 11,922.9 while the FBM 70 slipped 27.72 points to 14,186.63.

Sector-wise, the Industrial Products and Services Index inched up 0.93 of-a-point to 153.41, the Financial Services Index rebounded 55.87 points to 15,434.86 but the Plantation Index gave up 35.46 points to 7,566.86. — Bernama