KUALA LUMPUR: Persistent buying pushed Bursa Malaysia to close higher, led by Malaysia Airports which jumped 58 sen to RM8.51 and Tenaga which increased 28 sen to RM13.28 on Wednesday.
The momentum came after upbeat comments on the US-China trade talks, which will resume before the upcoming G20 summit in Osaka, Japan on June 28-29.
US President Donald Trump tweeted yesterday that he was going to resume discussions with Chinese President Xi Jinping on their trade talks.
The benchmark FTSE Bursa Malaysia KLCI (FBM KLCI) went up by 0.83% or 13.78 points to finish at 1,666.54 compared with Tuesday’s close of 1,652.76.
The barometer index that opened 1.81 points higher at 1,654.57 this morning hovered between 1,652.58 and 1,666.90 throughout the day.
On the scoreboard, gainers trumped losers 474 to 330, while 405 counters were unchanged, 658 untraded and 20 others suspended.
Turnover increased to 2.42 billion units valued at RM2.34 billion from 2.03 billion units worth RM1.72 billion recorded on Tuesday.
Phillip Capital Management said the global stocks markets have been on an upward trend since yesterday as a result of recent comments made by Trump, who hinted prospects of a trade deal with China.
“We also believe the local market strength was also stimulated by European Central Bank (ECB) president Draghi’s suggestion that the ECB would provide more monetary policy stimulus if economic conditions deteriorate and the ECB’s ability to meet the inflation mandate is threatened,“ its Asia-Pacific senior vice president (investment) Datuk Dr Nazri Khan Adam Khan said.
On Trump’s tweets, Nazri said the market would continue to improve in the coming week as the summit edges closer.
Back home, Top Glove, which will be expanding its nitrile rubber gloves production, saw its shares go up by three sen to RM4.90, while AirAsia, which bagged the World’s Best award in the Skytrax World Airline Awards 2019, added one sen to RM2.76.
Among heavyweights, Maybank rose one sen to RM8.94, Public Bank went up by six sen to RM23.10 while Hong Leong fell 30 sen to RM18.96.
As for the active stocks, Ekovest added half-a-sen to 84.5 sen and Iskandar Waterfront advanced nine sen to RM1.10.
Mestron Holdings, a steel pole manufacturing company, which made its first appearance as a publicly listed company in the local bourse’s Ace Market yesterday, shed half-a-sen to 16 sen.
The FBM Emas Index rose 82.25 points to 11,698.71, the FBMT 100 Index increased 81.75 points to 11,553.20 and the FBM Emas Syariah Index soared 109.75 points to 12,008.66.
The FBM 70 added 47.48 points to 14,340.88 but the FBM Ace went down 30.21 points to 4,323.31.
Sector-wise, the Financial Services Index fell 6.06 points to 16,677.56 and the Plantation Index improved 112.48 points to 7,054.49, while the Industrial Products and Services Index edged up 0.30 point to 160.27.
Main Market volume appreciated to 1.52 billion shares worth RM2.10 billion from 946.01 million shares valued at RM1.41 billion recorded on Tuesday.
Warrants turnover rose to 592.46 million units worth RM135.87 million versus 472.21 million units valued at RM119.00 million.
Volume on the ACE Market depreciated to 308.13 million shares worth RM96.69 million against yesterday’s 609.66 million shares valued at RM181.86 million.
Consumer products and services accounted for 212.85 million shares traded on the Main Market, industrial products and services (168.90 million), construction (373.55 million), technology (125.07 million), SPAC (nil), financial services (40.95 million), property (290.61 million), plantation (12.36 million), REITs (10.41 million), closed/fund (1,000), energy (171.95 million), healthcare (15.61 million), telecommunications and media (41.19 million), transportation and logistics (39.09 million), and utilities (16.47 million).
The physical price of gold as at 5pm stood at RM174.15 per gramme, down 70 sen from RM174.85 at 5pm yesterday. — Bernama
