Bull run continues to push Bursa M'sia higher
KUALA LUMPUR: Bursa Malaysia's bull run continued this morning, with the Composite Index (CI) opened firmer as the bullish market sentiment continued to fuel investors' risk appetite, dealers said.
At 9.05 am, the benchmark FTSE Bursa Malaysia KLCI (FBM KLCI) stood at 1,808.5, up 5.05 points from Thursday's close of 1,803.45 after opening 1.34 points better at 1,804.79.
Axiata was the biggest contributor to the rise in CI, with 1.604 points. The stock rose 10 sen to RM5.56 with 188,700 shares traded.
A dealer said the bullish market sentiment was buoyed by gains on Wall Street, which closed stronger for the second consecutive day, and amid robust major economic data, including from the US, Europe and China.
Maybank IB Research said with the 1,800 psychological level taken out and positive spillover from pre-election play, it expected the FBM KLCI to extend its upward trajectory today with small- and medium-capitalised stocks to continue steal the limelight.
"Technically, we expect the benchmark index to trade between 1,795 and 1,810 today. The downside supports are 1,770 and 1,752," it said in a note today.
The overall market breadth was positive with gainers beating losers by 265 to 69, while 251 counters were unchanged, 1,227 untraded and 31 others suspended.
Turnover stood at 284.71 million shares worth RM100.24 million.
Among heavyweights, Maybank and Petronas Chemicals rose one sen each to RM9.81 and RM8.20 respectively, CIMB gained three sen to RM6.58, while both Tenaga and Public Bank were RM15.40 and RM20.74 respectively.
Of the actives, P.A Resources added one sen to 10 sen, Sapura Energy perked 2.5 sen to 74 sen, while Sumatec was flat at 5.5 sen.
On the scoreboard, the FBM Emas Index was 36.79 points higher at 13,073.6, FBMT 100 Index improved 41.35 points to 12,728.06, FBM 70 chalked up 72.41 points to 16,337.44, FBM Emas Shariah Index bagged 54.52 points to 13,521.01 and the FBM Ace earned 42.96 points to 6,946.86.
Sector-wise, the Finance Index added 13.52 points to 16,982.34, Industrial Index was up 5.79 points to 3,366.18 and the Plantation Index surged 16.52 points to 8,011.34.
The physical price of gold as at 9.30am stood at RM164.58/g, up 66 sen from RM163.92 at 5.00pm yesterday. – Bernama