Bursa Malaysia ends slightly higher
KUALA LUMPUR: Bursa Malaysia ended slightly higher today amid cautious trading, underpinned by market uncertainties on weaker global sentiment.
The benchmark FTSE Bursa Malaysia KLCI (FBM KLCI) closed at 1,777.43, up 1.86 points from yesterday's close of 1,775.57.
After opening 1.32 points higher at 1,776.89, the key index moved between 1,775.07 and 1,778.68 throughout the day, with buying interest scattered with profit-taking in index-linked counters.
On the broader market, gainers led losers 459 to 389, with 367 counters unchanged, 574 untraded and 34 others suspended.
Volume declined to 1.64 billion units valued at RM1.79 billion from 1.69 billion units worth RM2.41 billion recorded yesterday.
A dealer said overall sentiment was still cautious following the decline in global oil prices on concerns over growing supply.
ForexTime Chief Market Strategist Hussedin Sayed said oil prices are becoming the primary driver of the financial markets.
"The ongoing fall in oil prices has driven risk-off sentiment across all asset classes. US stocks closed mostly lower despite the unexpected rise in home resales.
"After both benchmarks entered a bear market with Brent Crude plunging below US$45 (RM193) for the first time since November, investors are becoming more concerned as to when the fall will stop," he said in a statement today.
He also said traders had lost confidence in the Organisation of the Petroleum Exporting Countries's (Opec) ability to balance supplies.
"Supply is not the only justification for lower prices. When looking at the other side of the equation, we see that China's demand is slowing. It's expected that 10% of the country's refining capacity will shut down during the third quarter, which is another factor to worry about in the next couple of months," he added.
For heavyweights on Bursa Malaysia, Maybank fell one sen to RM9.58, Axiata declined four sen to RM4.94 and MISC eased seven sen to RM7.42.
Genting Bhd rose 18 sen to RM9.76, Genting Malaysia added six sen to RM5.56, BAT surged 68 sen to RM44.48 and Petronas Gas firmed 20 sen to RM18.90.
TNB and Public Bank were flat at RM14.18 and RM20.38 respectively.
Of the actives, Borneo Oil and Netx declined half-a-sen each to 10.5 sen and five sen respectively, while Iris gained two sen to 17 sen, Vsolar rose half-a-sen to 10 sen and DBE was flat at three sen.
Among other index-linked gainers, IHH Healthcare bagged nine sen to RM5.99, RHB Bank perked five sen to RM5.14, with CIMB and Petronas Chemicals flat at RM6.65 and RM7.15 respectively.
The FBM Emas Index rose 15.75 points to 12,631.51, the FBMT 100 Index gained 13.58 points to 12,276.70 and the FBM Emas Syariah Index was up 3.01 points to 12,832.87.
The FBM 70 increased 19.33 points to 14,923.93 and the FBM Ace was 104.46 points higher at 6,240.10.
The Finance Index improved 22.43 points to 16,846.16, the Plantation Index perked 7.04 points to 7,934.76 and the Industrial Index was 8.59 points higher at 3,280.27.
The Main Market turnover declined to 1.03 billion units worth RM1.71 billion from Wednesday's 1.19 billion units worth RM2.33 billion.
Volume on the ACE Market rose to 423.67 million shares valued at RM67.52 million from 237.19 million shares valued at RM50.22 million yesterday.
Warrants eased to 179.99 million units worth RM16.84 million from 249.07 million units worth RM24.90 million on Wednesday.
Consumer products accounted for 83.57 million shares traded on the Main Market, industrial products (221.24 million), construction (73.24 million), trade and services (404.98 million), technology (55.60 million), infrastructure (17.99 million), SPAC (387,000), finance (66.91 million), hotels (399,200), properties (88.01 million), plantations (11.84 million), mining (0), REITs (5.71 million) and closed/fund (32,200).
The physical price of gold as at 5pm stood at RM166.88 per gramme, up 59 sen from RM166.29 at 5pm yesterday. — Bernama