Last-minute buying pushes Bursa Malaysia to close higher

KUALA LUMPUR: Last-minute buying mostly seen in the trade and services counters pushed Bursa Malaysia to close marginally higher today, after dipping into the negative territory earlier in the afternoon session.
At 5pm, the FTSE Bursa Malaysia KLCI finished at 1,755.19, up 0.19 of-a-point after moving between 1,752.78 and 1,759.52 throughout the day.
The index opened 4.12 points higher at 1,759.12 at 9am from last Friday's close of 1,755.00.
Market breadth was negative with losers leading gainers 441 to 417, with 371 counters unchanged, 554 untraded and 22 others suspended.
Total volume eased to 2.04 billion shares worth RM1.71 billion from last Friday's 2.37 billion shares worth RM1.91 billion.
Among trade and services heavyweights, Axiata added four sen to RM4.64, Maxis perked three sen to RM5.53 while Genting Malaysia and Westports gained two sen each to RM5.76 and RM3.71, respectively.
A dealer said regionally, Asian stock markets including Bursa Malaysia were traded higher, particularly bolstered by China's better-than-expected economic growth data released today.
"China's strong gross domestic product in second quarter of the year, which rose by 6.9 per cent year-on-year, had lifted market sentiment," he said.
Apart from that, the dealer said the bullish Wall Street performance on Friday, along with firm crude oil prices also had a positive impact on investor sentiment.
Among regional bourses, South Korea's KOSPI advanced 10.47 points or 0.43 per cent to 2,425.10, Singapore's Straits Times gained 8.36 points or 0.25 per cent to 3,295.79 and Hong Kong's Hang Seng was 81.35 points or 0.31 per cent better at 26,470.58.
Of actives, UMWOG leapt 8.5 sen to 37 sen, Vivocom improved half-a-sen to 15 sen while its warrant was flat at 5.5 sen.
Meanwhile, MLAB fell 8.5 to 32 sen and Anzo eased half-a-sen to 12 sen.
The FBM Emas Index improved 8.16 points to 12,502.84, FBM Emas Syariah Index increased 16.47 points to 12,691.21 and the FBMT 100 Index advanced 5.18 points to 12,147.38.
The FBM 70 was up 20.93 points to 14,858.18 and the FBM Ace surged 19 points to 6,848.17.
Sector wise, the Industrial Index rose 8.47 points to 3,273.24, but the Finance Index gave up 29.11 points to 16,642.54 and the Plantation Index eased 13.28 points to 7,841.04.
The Main Market turnover narrowed to 1.17 billion shares worth RM1.53 billion from last Friday's 1.26 billion shares valued at RM1.69 billion.
Warrants widened to 135.87 million units worth RM14.49 million from 116.55 million units valued at RM11.37 million last Friday.
Volume on the ACE Market contracted to 720.40 million shares worth RM163.76 million from 978.99 million shares worth RM204.01 million previously.
Consumer products accounted for 38.89 million shares traded on the Main Market, industrial products (239.96 million), construction (109.78 million), trade and services (553.05 million), technology (43.83 million), infrastructure (15.25 million), SPAC (1.40 million), finance (42.28 million), hotels (5.97 million), properties (98.87 million), plantations (21.91 million), mining (nil), REITs (4.82 million) and closed/fund (nil).
The physical price of gold as at 5pm stood at RM164.13 per gramme, up RM1.20 from RM162.93 at 5pm last Friday. — Bernama