Bursa Malaysia rebounds to close higher
KUALA LUMPUR: Bursa Malaysia rebounded to close higher today on bargain-hunting in most blue-chips, backed by the higher finish on overnight Wall Street, dealers said.
At 5pm, the FTSE Bursa Malaysia KLCI (FBM KLCI) was up 24.32 points, or 1.33%, to 1,836.68 from Tuesday's close of 1,812.45.
The index moved between 1,825.80 and 1,841.08 throughout the day session after opening 14.66 points firmer at 1,827.11.
Market breadth was positive, with gainers outpacing losers by 625 to 460, with 361 counters unchanged, 399 untraded and 19 others suspended.
Turnover, however, declined to 3.31 billion shares worth RM3.50 billion from Tuesday's 5.20 billion shares worth RM5.32 billion.
Inter-Pacific Securities Sdn Bhd Head of Research, Pong Teng Siew, said the bourse's gains, however, were limited as sentiment towards the recent sell-offs in the US, has not fully recovered in the Asian markets.
Japan's Nikkei 225 was marginally higher at 0.16%. The Hong Kong's Hang Seng Index moved 0.89% lower and Singapore's Straits Times Index was down 0.66%.
"The markets overall are performing better today but some are still trying to find catalysts to give them a boost but it will take some time.
"For Bursa Malaysia, it is hard to say from day to day, but moving at above 20 points, we think it will gradually be stable, depending on how the US markets will hold tonight," Pong told Bernama.
Of the heavyweights, Maybank added six sen to RM10.06, Tenaga (+26 sen to RM15.84), Public Bank (+ 46 sen to RM21.94) and CIMB (+21 sen to RM7.08).
Petronas Chemicals fell one sen to RM7.99.
The top gainers were Nestle, which rose 70 sen to RM115.00, Hartalega (+66 sen to RM11.50) and Petronas Gas (+50 sen to RM17.62).
Among the active counters, Sumatec was flat at 7.5 sen while Sapura Energy eased 1.5 sen to 70.5 sen and Hibiscus Petroleum fell two sen to 83 sen.
The FBM Emas Index perked 156.79 points to 13,083.80, FBMT 100 Index was up 164.57 points to 12,806.61 and the FBM 70 rose 191.17 points to 16,036.57.
The FBM Emas Syariah Index soared 136.09 points to 13,350.21 and the FBM Ace increased 28.21 points to 6,169.62.
Sector-wise, the Finance Index jumped 244.28 points to 17,604.55, Industrial Index was 18.13 points better at 3,242.17 and the Plantation Index advanced 74.15 points to 7,968.27.
The Main Market volume fell to 2.13 billion units valued at RM5.03 billion from Tuesday's 3.37 billion units valued at RM5.03 billion.
Volume on the ACE Market decreased to 522.05 million shares worth RM91.68 million from yesterday's 1.03 billion shares worth RM134.78 million.
Warrants volume slipped to 650.28 million units valued at RM141.49 million from 782.75 million units valued at RM146.34 million recorded previously.
Consumer products accounted for 81.89 million shares traded on the Main Market, industrial products (444.00 million), construction (128.04 million), trade and services (1.04 billion), technology (114.48 million), infrastructure (13.06 million), SPAC (3.13 million), finance (87.58 million), hotels (533,500), properties, (161.68 million), plantations (39.93 million), mining (446,800), REITs (12.20 million), and closed/fund (124,800).
The physical price of gold as at 5pm stood at RM161.59 per gramme, down RM1.68 from RM163.27 at 5pm yesterday. — Bernama