BURSA Malaysia closed the trading session higher today amid the improved regional market sentiment after a rally on Wall Street overnight, with sustained buying interest seen in selected heavyweight counters led by telecommunication and media stocks, a dealer said.
At 5pm, the benchmark FTSE Bursa Malaysia KLCI (FBM KLCI) earned 3.38 points, or 0.22%, to 1,494.73 from Wednesday’s close of 1,491.35.
The benchmark index opened 0.48 of a point lower at 1,490.87 and moved between 1,486.98 and 1,497.66 throughout the trading session.
On the broader market, gainers led decliners 416 to 373, while 450 counters were unchanged, 1,051 untraded and nine others suspended.
Total turnover rose marginally to 2.39 billion units worth RM1.86 billion from 2.36 billion units worth RM1.61 billion on Wednesday.
According to Rakuten Trade Sdn Bhd VP of equity research Thong Pak Leng, regional key indices closed broadly higher after Wall Street surged overnight.
“Investors see that interest rate concerns have been priced into the markets and are picking up stocks at reduced levels following recent weakness,” he told Bernama.
He reckons that the overall market sentiment will further improve as falling commodity prices, especially crude oil, could ease inflationary risks for the global economy.
“As such, we anticipate the FBM KLCI to test the 1,500-mark towards the weekend,” he said.
Meanwhile, Bursa heavyweights Maxis Bhd added six sen to RM3.82, Telekom Malaysia Bhd jumped nine sen to RM5.90, Digi.Com Bhd increased two sen to RM3.55, Tenaga Nasional Bhd added 10 sen to RM8.85 and Petronas Dagangan Bhd surged 48 sen to RM21.88.
Of the actives, Metronic Global Bhd fell 1.5 sen to 4.5 sen, Umedic Group Bhd lost one sen to 75 sen, SNS Network Technology Bhd was flat at 26 sen, Agmo Holdings Bhd and Cnergenz Bhd both advanced 2.5 sen to 94.5 sen and 91.0 sen, respectively.
On the index board, the FBM Emas Index went up 28.53 points to 10,613.9, the FBM T100 Index firmed 30.37 points to 10,363.67, the FBM Emas Shariah Index bagged 39.79 points to 10,704.37, the FBM ACE inched up 28.48 points to 4,802.1 and the FBM 70 grew 65.13 points to 12,745.1.
Sector-wise, the Plantation Index was 5.63 points lower at 7,023.2, the Energy Index slid 2.69 points to 706.5, the Financial Services Index rose 22.02 points to 16,735.05, the Industrial Products and Services Index added 0.28 of-a-point to 185.33 and the Telecommunication and Media Index widened 3.81 points to 589.75.
The Main Market volume climbed down to 1.46 billion shares worth RM1.43 billion from 1.54 billion shares worth RM1.34 billion on Wednesday.
Warrants turnover fell to 227.16 million units valued at RM37.89 million from 264.82 million units valued at RM38.42 million previously.
The ACE Market volume increased to 696.75 million shares worth RM388.99 million from 559.39 million shares worth RM238.12 million yesterday.
Consumer products and services counters accounted for 169.69 million shares traded on the Main Market, industrial products and services (591.01 million), construction (36.99 million), technology (141.15 million), SPAC (nil), financial services (59.79 million), property (166.24 million), plantation (24.51 million), REITs (3.88 million), closed/fund (nil), energy (123.48 million), healthcare (73.58 million), telecommunications and media (20.98 million), transportation and logistics (39.73 million), and utilities (15.35 million). — Bernama / pic Muhd Amin Naharul