Bursa Malaysia rebounds to end higher
KUALA LUMPUR: Bursa Malaysia rebounded to end higher today on persistent buying on heavyweight stocks, following positive sentiment brought by the 2018 Budget announcement today, and in tracking the firm performance of regional peers, dealers said.
At 5pm, the benchmark FTSE Bursa Malaysia KLCI (FBM KLCI) rose 9.33 points to end at 1,746.13 compared with Thursday's close of 1,736.80.
After opening 4.54 points better at 1,741.34 in the morning, the index moved between 1,739.89 and 1,751.50 throughout the day.
Market breadth, was positive as gainers outpaced losers by 511 to 344, with 399 counters unchanged, 621 untraded and 106 others suspended.
Volume rose to 2.76 billion worth RM2.66 billion from 2.53 billion units worth RM2.13 billion on Thursday.
A dealer said the local bourse also rebounded on a firm note throughout the trading session on persistent buying in heavyweight stocks.
"Bursa Malaysia's performance was also in line with major Asian bourses which continued their gains on Friday, boosted by technology shares, while taking cue from the upbeat earnings of US hi-tech giants, and as the euro hovered near a three-month low against the dollar after the European Central Bank extended its stimulus," he added.
Regionally, Japan's Nikkei 225 rose 1.24% to 22,008.45, Hong Kong's Hang Seng gained 0.84% to 28,438.43, South Korea's Kospi added 0.64% to 2,496.63, the Singapore Straits Times index gained 0.69% to 3,379.46 and the Shanghai Stock Exchange bagged 0.27% to 3,416.82.
Of the heavyweights, TNB surged 62 sen to RM14.96, Sime Darby added nine sen to RM9.17, Petronas Chemicals eased two sen each to RM7.38, Maybank slid one sen to RM9.23, while Public Bank was flat at RM20.48.
Among active counters, UMW Oil & Gas warrant added two sen to 16.5 sen, Hubline and Sino Hua-An edged up half-a-sen to 18.5 sen and 23.5 sen respectively, GPA Holdings warrant eased half-a-sen to 4.5 sen, while APFT was flat at three sen.
The FBM Emas Index rose 81.91 points to 12,551.61, the FBMT100 Index was 80.95 points firmer at 12,191.47, the FBM Emas Syariah Index jumped 151.89 points to 12,998.11 and the FBM 70 increased 160.32 points to 15,313.31.
The FBM Ace fell 12.27 points to 6,881.34.
Sector-wise, the Plantation Index was 12.03 points better at 7,951.47, the Industrial Index rose 10.74 points to 3,204.17 and the Finance Index improved 16.75 points to 16,258.44.
The Main Market widened to 2.02 billion shares worth RM2.53 billion from 1.50 billion shares worth RM1.95 billion on Thursday.
Volume on the ACE Market decreased to 528.75 million units valued at RM107.73 million versus yesterday's 862.19 million units valued at RM157.50 million.
Warrants volume rose to 191.01 million shares worth RM20.09 million from 138.03 million shares worth RM13.40 million previously.
Consumer products accounted for 92.02 million shares traded on the Main Market, industrial products (374.26 million), construction (169.97 million), trade and services (873.51 million), technology (253.98 million), infrastructure (4.93 million), SPAC (1.12 million), finance (43.87 million), hotels (818,700), properties (147.58 million), plantations (46.11 million), mining (35,000), REITs (13.32 million), and closed/fund (8,000).
The physical price of gold as at 5pm stood at RM167.17 per gramme, down RM1.07 from RM168.24 at 5pm yesterday. — Bernama