Bursa Malaysia up on technical rebound
KUALA LUMPUR: Bursa Malaysia ended higher today on technical rebound after Monday's steep decline, bolstered by gains in the consumer and key finance counters, a dealer said.
At 5pm, the FTSE Bursa Malaysia KLCI finished at 1,706.64, up 14.72 points, after fluctuating between 1,691.03 and 1,708.38 throughout the day.
British American Tobacco was the top contributor to the index's gain, rising RM1.14 to RM62, followed by Nestle (+38 sen to RM71.50) and Kuala Lumpur Kepong (+22 sen to RM21.40).
Other leading movers were Allianz (+30 sen to RM12.40), Petronas Chemicals (+24 sen to RM6.32), Public Bank (+18 sen to RM18.72) and CIMB (+16 sen to RM5.47).
The higher close was in line with the bullish regional peers despite Greece debt settlement, said a dealer.
A dealer said the disagreement between Greece and its lenders escalated as the former will not make the US$1.7 billion loan payment to International Monetary Fund due today.
On regional markets, Japan's Nikkei 225 rose 0.63% to 20,235.73, South Korea's Kospi Composite Index edged up 0.67% to 2,074.20 and Singapore's Straits Times increased 1.13% 3,317.33.
Market breadth was positive with gainers thumping losers by 495 to 309, with 308 counters unchanged, 723 untraded and 64 others were suspended.
Total volume increased to 1.75 billion units worth RM2.25 billion from Monday's 1.67 billion units worth RM1.71 billion.
Among the top losers, Chin Teck fell 56 sen to RM8.7, Hap Seng (-28 sen to RM5.2) and Aeon Credit (-26 sen to RM13.44).
Newly-listed Xin Hwa, debuted at 79 sen for a nine-sen premium, was among actively-traded stocks.
It closed at 86 sen, up 16 sen, with 76.32 million shares traded.
Other actives were KNM, which gained 2.5 sen to 62 sen and Frontken, which inched up half-a-sen to 25 sen.
On the scoreboard, the FBM Emas Index was 80.42 points higher at 11,771.94, FBMT100 Index improved 77.44 points to 11,458.74, FBM Emas Syariah advanced 49.52 points to 12,208.85, FBM 70 gained 6.97 points to 12,727.11 and the FBM Ace climbed 51.48 points to 6,220.29.
On a sectoral basis, the Finance Index rose 122.60 points to 15,432.56, Plantation Index increased 51.11 points to 7,268.53 and the Industrial Index edged up 7.74 points for 3,132.35.
Main Market volume increased to 1.04 billion shares worth RM2.04 billion from 954.55 million shares worth RM1.51 billion on Monday.
Turnover on the ACE Market fell to 321.20 million units valued at RM91.96 million from 366.87 million units valued at RM92.92 million yesterday.
Warrants increased to 386.41 million shares worth RM114.03 million from 353.90 million shares worth RM107.80 million previously.
Consumer products accounted for 50.22 million shares traded on the Main Market, industrial products (203.80 million), construction (46.68 million), trade and services (504.47 million), technology (30.80 million), infrastructure (20.76 million), SPAC (8.40 million), finance (65.14 million), hotels (722.000 million), properties (76 million), plantations (15.81 million), mining (5000), REITs (14.51 million) and closed/fund (3000).
The physical price of gold as at 5pm stood at RM138.09 per gramme, down 63 sen from RM138.72 at 5pm yesterday. — Bernama