Bursa Malaysia ends higher on continued buying support

KUALA LUMPUR: Bursa Malaysia ended higher today supported by continued buying in selected heavyweights and finance-related counters.
At 5pm, the FTSE Bursa Malaysia KLCI (FBM KLCI) closed at 1,652.74, up 5.12 points or 0.31%, from yesterday's close of 1,647.62.
The key index opened 4.75 points higher at 1,652.37 and moved between 1,652.37 and 1,664.27 throughout the day.
Mercury Securities Sdn Bhd Research Head, Edmund Tham, said the better sentiment on the local bourse was in line with Asian stock markets, sparked by the overnight gains on Wall Street as fears over the uncertainty about US policies following Donald Trump's victory as the US 45th president eased.
"It seems that people around the world has accepted the US presidential election result and at the moment, they are keeping a close eye on Trump's next move on policy when he takes over the seat in January 2017," he told Bernama.
Regionally, Japan's Nikkei 225 advanced 6.72% to 17,344.42, Hong Kong's Hang Seng rose 1.99% to 22,862.01, South Korea's Kospi jumped 2.26%to 2,002.60 and Shanghai Stock Exchange's SSE Composite Index added 1.37% to 3,171.28.
Meanwhile, Hong Leong Investment Bank Bhd said global liquidity remained abundant to cushion the downside impact of any severe correction.
"While calmness has returned in the overnight markets following a more conciliatory speech by Trump, the FBM KLCI is likely to undergo a period of volatility while monitoring the seriousness of Trump to follow through his extreme policies.
"Full execution of Trump's policies could be short-term positive for the US economy but negative for global trade," it said in a research note today.
Back home, leading movers were finance counters, with CIMB gaining 17 sen to RM4.97, Maybank rose nine sen to RM7.96, Public Bank jumped 10 sen to RM19.78 and RHB added three sen to RM4.76.
Sime Darby and IHH Healthcare both gained four sen to RM8.24 and RM6.39, respectively, Genting Bhd and Petronas Dagangan added six sen each to RM7.86 and RM23.46, respectively.
Among actives, Vivocom perked one sen to 18 sen, TA Global and RGB rose half-a-sen each to 25.5 sen and 23.5 sen, respectively, while Nexgram declined half-a-sen to four sen.
WCT which has secured work package V204 of the Mass Rapid Transit worth RM896.41 million from MRT Corporation Bhd saw its share advance 11 sen to RM1.91 with 28.46 million shares transacted.
Market breadth was positive with gainers outpacing losers by 650 to 207 with 308 counters unchanged, 523 counters untraded and 24 others suspended.
Total volume shrank to 1.63 billion shares worth RM2.08 billion from 2.51 billion shares worth RM2.39 billion on Wednesday.
On the scoreboard, the FBM Emas Index rose 56.56 points to 11,632.82, FBMT100 Index increased 50.14 points to 11,342.93 and the FBM Emas Shariah Index perked 40.88 points to 12,195.81.
The FBM 70 added 114.12 points to 13,504.92 and the FBM Ace soared 71.47 points to 4,982.83.
Sector-wise, the Industrial Index declined 9.59 points to 3,127.15, Finance Index surged 145.05 points to 14,481.04 and the Plantation Index climbed 27.83 points to 7,733.89.
Main Market turnover fell to 1.11 billion units worth RM1.99 billion from 1.56 billion units worth RM2.18 billion on Wednesday.
The ACE Market volume decreased to 246.34 million shares valued at RM39.07 million from 375.41 million shares valued at RM51.03 million.
Warrants dwindled to 272.95 million units worth RM58.87 million from 559.67 million units worth RM154.32 million yesterday.
Consumer products accounted for 62.41 million shares traded on the Main Market, industrial products (206.98 million), construction (133.96 million), trade and services (376.69 million), technology (25.27 million), infrastructure (12.95 million), SPAC (33.71 million), finance (87.22 million), hotels (84,100), properties (142.82 million), plantations (23.28 million), mining (10,200), REITs (10.08 million) and closed/fund (25,000).
The physical price of gold as at 5pm stood at RM171.00 per gramme, up 28 sen from RM170.72 at 5pm last yesterday. — Bernama