Bursa Malaysia closes higher
KUALA LUMPUR: Bursa Malaysia closed higher for the eighth straight day today with gains seen across-the-board, save for the mining counter, as the Federal Reserve (Fed) Chair's testimony last night had a positive spillover throughout markets, said a dealer.
At 5pm, the benchmark FTSE Bursa Malaysia KLCI (FBM KLCI) finished at its intra-day high of 1,753.07, up 15.79 points, from Tuesday's close of 1,737.28.
The barometer index moved between 1,730.38 and 1,753.07 throughout the day.
Bank Islam Malaysia Bhd chief economist Dr Mohd Afzanizam Abdul Rashid said earlier today Fed Chair Jerome Powell's assurance of a gradual approach in raising interest rates was positive news for the market.
"This will allow more time for the economy to adjust to the higher interest rates environment which has commenced since the first rate hike in December 2015.
"Apart from that, Malaysia's lower-than-expected Consumer Price Index data of 0.8% growth in June suggests that the disposable income of Malaysian consumers is improving following the zero-rated Goods and Services Tax which took effect on June 1," he told Bernama.
Nonetheless, Mohd Afzanizam said the risks arising from the US-China trade tensions remain the black box and how they evolve going forward would be closely scrutinised by the market.
On the home front, market breadth was positive with gainers outpacing losers 594 to 295 with 423 counters unchanged, 599 untraded and 17 others suspended.
Volume increased to 2.63 billion units valued at RM2.17 billion, from 2.33 billion units valued at RM2.14 billion recorded on Tuesday.
Of the heavyweights, Maybank added two sen to RM9.60, Public Bank and Tenaga rose 10 sen each to RM23.70 and RM14.88 respectively, while Petronas Chemicals rose five sen to RM8.85 and CIMB improved 18 sen to RM5.85.
Among actives, the latest debutant to the Bursa Malaysia ACE market, Revenue Group, increased 25.5 sen to 62.5 sen, Priceworth rose 1.5 sen to nine sen, Sapura Energy was half-a-sen higher at 60 sen, while APFT declined by the same quantum to 2.5 sen and Key Asic was flat at 21.5 sen.
DanaInfra Nasional led the gainers' list today, putting on 90 sen to RM101.50, while PMB Technology was the biggest decliner, giving up 37 sen to RM2.95.
The FBM Emas Index chalked up 116.26 points to 12,376.22, the FBM70 rose 166.83 points to 15,123.64, the FBMT100 Index improved 115.85 points to 12,178.73, the FBM Emas Syariah Index increased 117.31 points to 12,467.07, the FBM Ace Index gained 70.91 points to 5,407.57 and the FTSE Bursa Malaysia Small Cap Index garnered 105.6 points to 14,254.14.
Sector-wise, the Finance Index added 116.23 points to 17,250.24, the Industrial Index bagged 10.45 points to 3,210.18, and the Plantation Index increased 45.34 points to 7,492.84.
Main Market volume decreased to 1.46 billion shares valued at RM1.81 billion, from 1.47 billion shares valued at RM1.9 billion registered on Tuesday.
Warrants turnover rose to 538.64 million units valued at RM144.11 million, versus Tuesday's 505.99 million units valued at RM152.91 million.
Volume on the ACE Market increased to 625.77 million shares valued at RM213.29 million, from 350.17 million shares valued at RM85.23 million recorded yesterday.
Consumer products accounted for 49.48 million shares traded on the Main Market, industrial products (316.28 million), construction (93.76 million), trade and services (669.49 million), technology (118.68 million), infrastructure (22.73 million), SPAC (12.88 million), finance (60.37 million), hotels (9.41 million), properties (91.49 million), plantations (16.45 million), mining (10,500), REITs (5.26 million) and closed/fund (143,900).
The physical price of gold as at 5pm stood at RM154.44 per gramme, down RM2.27 from RM156.71 at 5pm yesterday. — Bernama