KUALA LUMPUR: Bursa Malaysia closed slightly higher today with gains in selected heavyweights and blue-chips, led by Sime Darby and Genting Bhd.
At the closing bell, the FTSE Bursa Malaysia KLCI (FBM KLCI) increased 0.25 of-a-point to close at 1,695.62 from Wednesday’s close of 1,695.37.
After opening 0.78 of-a-point easier at 1,694.59 this morning, the benchmark index moved between 1,689.03 and 1,701.74 throughout the day.
A dealer said the uptrend performance on the local stock market was also in line with most regional peers, with Singapore’s Straits Times Index rising 3.59 points or 0.12% to 3,042.24, Japan’s Nikkei surging 139.01 points or 0.65% to 21,646.55 and Hong Kong’s Hang Seng improving 47.94 points or 0.18% to 26,019.41.
However, due to the current disappointing corporate results, it also prompted the sell-off on selected counters and capped the gains, he said.
The dealer said the weakening of crude oil prices, with the global benchmark Brent crude price dropping to US$62.70 per barrel and West Texas Intermediate crude slipping to US$53.71 per barrel (at press time), put energy-related counters under heavy pressure.
Among the oil and gas-linked heavyweights, Petronas Dagangan slid six sen to RM26.84, Dialog eased two sen to RM3.16 and Petronas Chemicals gave up one sen to RM9.24.
Of heavyweights, Maybank and CIMB edged down one sen each to RM9.39 and RM5.65, respectively, Public Bank and TNB erased two sen each to RM24.80 and RM14.78, respectively.
Of actives, Sapura Energy fell 1.5 sen to 36 sen, TATT Giap gained one sen to 25 sen and Berjaya Land increased 2.5 sen to 22 sen.
Market breadth, however, was negative, with losers leading gainers 484 to 310, while 386 counters were unchanged, 727 untraded and 31 others suspended.
Volume decreased to 1.75 billion units worth RM1.44 billion from 2.04 billion units worth RM1.93 billion on Wednesday.
The FBM Emas Index lost 20.46 points to 11,796.16, the FBMT 100 Index shed 17.04 points to 11,639.42 and the FBM 70 declined 92.95 points to 13,930.34.
The FBM Emas Shariah Index was 26.89 points lower at 11,856.76 but the FBM Ace Index was 33.39 points better at 5,033.32.
Sector-wise, the Finance Index slipped 12.85 points to 17,292.46, the Industrial Products and Services Index was 0.10 of-a-point weaker at 172.97 and the Plantation Index slid 15.14 points to 7,176.84.
Main Market volume narrowed to 1.15 billion shares worth RM1.30 billion from 1.29 billion shares worth RM1.74 billion on Wednesday.
Warrants turnover fell to 334.03 million units valued at RM83.11 million from 492.69 million units valued at RM130.06 million.
Volume on the ACE Market edged up to 266.43 million shares worth RM57.56 million from 262.21 million shares worth RM67.21 million previously.
Consumer products and services accounted for 231.81 million shares traded on the Main Market, industrial products and services (228.88 million), construction (174.30 million), technology (172.65 million), SPAC (345,000), financial services (24.49 million), property (64.46 million), plantations (15.83 million), REITs (8.68 million), closed/fund (nil), energy (132.27 million), healthcare (21.87 million), telecommunication and media (25.65 million), transportation and logistics (31.15 million), and utilities (19.06 million).
The physical price of gold as at 5pm stood at RM160.18 per gramme, up 41 sen from RM159.77 at 5pm yesterday. — Bernama
