Bursa Malaysia ends higher on bargain hunting

Malaysia closed marginally higher on Friday, hitting an intraday high as bargain-hunting activities emerged following a few lacklustre trading sessions earlier.

At 5pm, the FBM KLCI gained 5.47 points to 1,536.07 from Wednesday’s close of 1,530.60.

The benchmark index opened 1.51 points higher at 1,532.11 and moved between 1,532.03 and 1,542.00 throughout the day.

Gainers outpaced losers 516 to 469, while 502 counters were unchanged, 833 untraded, and 55 others suspended.

Turnover narrowed to 3.06 billion units worth RM2.59 billion from 3.75 billion units worth RM3.1 billion on Wednesday.

Rakuten Trade Sdn Bhd equity research vice-president Thong Pak Leng said investors are still staying cautious despite some improvement in market sentiment.

“Recognising that investors’ expectations fluctuate over time. We expect the benchmark index to remain in its sideways pattern for the time being until more clarity emerges regarding the anticipated United States interest rate cut.

“The FBM KLCI has remained in the consolidation phase over the past two weeks. Despite the ongoing deeper consolidation, the index has consistently remained above the 50-day Exponential Moving Averages,” he told Bernama.

Among the heavyweights, Maybank bagged 4 sen to RM9.69, Public Bank added 1 sen to RM4.22, CIMB Group gained 9 sen to RM6.64, and Tenaga Nasional expanded 14 sen to RM11.38. Meanwhile, Petronas Chemicals declined 8 sen to RM6.71. As for the actives, Hong Seng Consolidated and Lambo Group were flat at 1 sen and 3 sen, respectively, MMAG Holdings expanded 1.5 sen to 19 sen, Southern Score Builders added 4.5 sen to 34.5 sen, while Ingenieur Gudang slipped 1 sen to 15 sen.