Bursa Malaysia continues upward momentum
KUALA LUMPUR: Bursa Malaysia continued its upward momentum this morning with the Composite Index at more than two-year high (31 month-high) and near the 1,800-level on strong interests boosted by positive global market sentiment, dealers said.
At 9.04am, the benchmark FTSE Bursa Malaysia KLCI (FBM KLCI) stood at 1,798.81, up 6.02 points, from Wednesday's close of 1,792.79 after opening 2.77 points firmer at 1,795.56.
The FBM KLCI was traded at 1,809.72 in May 2015 before retreating to below 1,800 thereafter.
Maybank IB Research said with Wall Street closed at record highs and positive spillover from local pre-election play, local stock market was expected to extend its gain today.
"Technically, we expect the benchmark index to trade between 1,790 and 1,800 today. Downside supports are at 1,770 and 1,752," it said in a note today.
A dealer said the overnight Wall Street close on upbeat US factory data that underpinned growing investor confidence in global growth.
He also said the intact local fundamentals, fuelled by stronger ringgit versus US dollar coupled with influx of foreign fund inflows into the country, had helped drive the local bourse higher.
The overall market breadth was bullish with gainers beating losers by 287 to 55, while 208 counters were unchanged, 1,261 untraded and 30 others suspended.
Turnover stood at 252.22 million shares worth RM100.66 million.
Among heavyweights, Maybank added one sen to RM9.79 and Public Bank and CIMB gained two sen each to RM20.78 and RM6.55 respectively.
Tenaga was flat at RM15.30.
Petronas Chemicals rose 12 sen to RM8.07 and Sime Darby perked 12 sen to RM2.53. The gains in these two stocks lifted the FBM KLCI higher by a combination of 3.152 points.
Of the actives, P.A Resources inched up half-a-sen to 7.5 sen, Hibiscus increased 3.5 sen to 95.5 sen and Sino Hua-An added one sen to 47 sen.
Vivovom slipped half-a-sen to 13.5 sen.
On the scoreboard, the FBM Emas Index rose 48.68 points to 12,979.06, FBMT 100 Index surged 46.35 points to 12,634.81 and the FBM 70 chalked up 72.78 points to 16,133.8.
The FBM Emas Syariah Index soared 71.93 points to 13,365.89 and the FBM Ace gained 13.09 points to 6,843.29.
Sector-wise, the Finance Index added 43.77 points to 16,968.34, Industrial Index increased 19.61 points to 3,328.77 and the Plantation Index bagged 20.61 points to 7,964.8.
The physical price of gold as at 9.30am stood at RM163.53 per gramme, down 86 sen from RM164.39 at 5pm yesterday. — Bernama