Bursa Malaysia ends mixed, CI up 3.74 points
KUALA LUMPUR: The key index FTSE Bursa Malaysia KLCI (FBM KLCI) finished off its intraday-high today amid a mixed broader market with sentiment clouded by weak regional economic data, dealers said.
However, interests in blue chips and heavyweights helped to cushion Bursa Malaysia and kept the key index mostly in the positive territory.
At close, the FBM KLCI closed 3.74 points higher at 1,781.65 after moving between 1,775.78 and 1,782.63 throughout the session. It opened 0.64 of-a-point better at 1,778.55 earlier today.
Gains in Maybank and CIMB contributed 3.038 points to the composite index by 3.038 points. Maybank chalked up 10 sen to RM9.80 while CIMB rose eight sen to RM6.76.
On the broader market, losers hammered gainers by 601 to 269, with 391 counters unchanged, 572 untraded and 22 others suspended.
Volume rose to 2.09 billion units worth RM2.26 billion from 1.95 billion units worth RM1.68 billion on Monday.
A dealer said local economic developments including the East Coast Economic Region Development Council's investments of RM9.9 billion, bullish export growth and Bank Negara Malaysia's reserves level, coupled with the positive overnight performance on Wall Street, helped boost sentiment locally.
However, the release of disappointing economic data from China clouded investors' optimism over a brighter outlook for global growth, he added.
Of the other heavyweights, Tenaga rose 40 sen to RM14.22 and Sime Darby gained two sen to RM9.41.
Public Bank lost 40 sen to RM20.62 while Petronas Chemicals shed one sen to RM7.02.
Regionally, Singapore's Straits Times fell 0.13% to 3,316.29, Japan's Nikkei 225 eased 0.30% to 19,996.01, South Korea's Kospi trimmed 0.17% to 2,394.73, but Hong Kong's Hang Seng advanced 0.59% to 27,854.91.
Among actives, Frontken added one sen to 34 sen, Dagang Nexchange inched down half-a-sen to 51.5 sen, but Hibiscus bagged 4.5 sen to 45.5 sen.
The FBM Emas Index increased 15.1 points to 12,644.64, FBMT 100 Index perked 18.3 points to 12,300.39 and the FBM Emas Syariah Index put on 9.51 points to 12,763.24.
However, the FBM 70 retreated 6.32 points to 14,931.79 and the FBM Ace gave up 81.97 points to 6,444.15.
Sector-wise, the Finance Index improved 39.92 points to 16,879.49, Industrial Index inched up 0.01 of-a-point to 3,277.98 but the Plantation Index shed 4.55 points to 7,868.13.
The Main Market turnover expanded to 1.45 billion shares worth RM2.08 billion from 1.21 billion shares valued at RM1.48 billion on Monday.
Volume on the ACE Market decreased to 462.89 million shares worth RM154.88 million from 569.08 million shares valued at RM167.05 million yesterday.
Warrants narrowed to 168.38 million units valued at RM22.99 million from 188.71 million units valued at RM39.4 billion previously.
Consumer products accounted for 65.63 million shares traded on the Main Market, industrial products (341.29 million), construction (86.01 million), trade and services (675.52 million), technology (55.09 million), infrastructure (6.93 million), SPAC (2.76 million), finance (76.48 million), hotels (6.66 million), properties (114.45 million), plantations (12.64 million), mining (22,000), REITs (10.13 million) and closed/fund (nil).
At 5pm, the price of physical gold was up 46 sen to RM168.05 a gramme from RM167.59 a gramme on Monday. — Bernama