FBM KLCI closes at intra-day high, bucks regional trend

KUALA LUMPUR: Bursa Malaysia rebounded from earlier losses to close at an intra-day high today prompted by late buying support for selected blue-chips led by Digi and Tenaga, dealers said.
The benchmark FTSE Bursa Malaysia KLCI (FBM KLCI) rose by 2.63 points to 1,719.86 from Friday's close of 1,717.23.
The barometer index, which opened 1.14 points higher at 1,718.37, has moved to as low as 1,712.97 at one point today.
Digi and Tenaga contributed 4.116 points to the rise of composite index. Both stocks advanced 18 sen each to close at RM4.59 and RM15.00 respectively.
Market breadth, however, was weaker with losers outpacing gainers 482 to 340, with 446 counters unchanged, 605 untraded and 38 others suspended.
Volume fell to 1.64 billion units valued at RM1.78 billion from Friday's 1.83 billion units valued at RM2.52 billion.
A dealer said most Asian stocks were in the red today despite the firmer lead from Wall Street last week, dampened by fresh concerns over China's economic development including its climbing bond yields.
"Bursa Malaysia bucked the regional trend to end higher today, amid the stronger ringgit. Its appreciation attracts foreign investors to the local bourse," he told Bernama.
At 5pm, the ringgit was traded higher at 4.1135/1165 against the US dollar from 4.1155/1185 recorded at 6pm on last Friday.
Regionally, Japan's Nikkei 225 was down 0.24% to 22,495.99, Hong Kong's Hang Seng fell 0.60% to 29,686.19, Singapore's Straits Times declined 0.17% to 3,436.36 and South Korea's Kospi plunged 1.44% to 2,507.81 amid selling by foreign investors.
Among heavyweights, Maybank gained five sen to RM9.20, but Public Bank slipped two sen to RM20.30, Petronas Chemicals trimmed four sen to RM7.31 and CIMB shed one sen to RM5.97.
Sime Darby, however, was flat at RM8.94.
Of the actives, EA Holdings inched down half-a-sen to 3.5 sen, while UMW Oil & Gas perked 1.5 sen to 31.5 sen and DGB added one sen to 15.5 sen.
On the scoreboard, the FBM Emas Index rose 14.27 points to 12,407.52, FBMT 100 Index improved 14.13 points to 12,061.02, FBM Emas Syariah Index increased by 32.65 points to 12,871.91 and the FBM 70 Index added 1.94 points to 15,346.45.
However, the FBM Ace went down 6.46 points to 6,396.16.
Sector-wise, the Finance Index slipped 3.68 points to 15,935.03, Plantation Index fell 31.24 points to 7,880.75 and the Industrial Index eased 9.6 points to 3,114.49.
The Main Market volume fell to 996.49 million units worth RM1.68 billion from Friday's 1.21 billion units worth RM2.41 billion.
Volume on the ACE Market improved to 398.64 million shares valued at RM72.96 million from 376.29 million shares valued at RM77.89 million.
Warrants volume increased slightly to 243.37 million units worth RM24.71 million from 236.64 million units worth RM27.8 million previously.
Consumer products accounted for 115.44 million shares traded on the Main Market, industrial products (231.41 million), construction (59.32 million), trade and services (401.69 million), technology (59.84 million), infrastructure (17.7 million), SPAC (312,200), finance (30.16 million), hotels (280,500), properties (62.76 million), plantations (10.06 million), mining (15,000), REITs (7.5 million), and closed/fund (nil).
The physical price of gold as at 5pm stood at RM165.34 per gramme, up 11 sen from RM165.23 at 5pm last Friday. — Bernama