KUALA LUMPUR: Positive news flow lifted Bursa Malaysia above the 1,600 level to end 0.44 per cent higher on Wednesday although the broader market remained bearish.
At 5 pm, the benchmark FTSE Bursa Malaysia KLCI (FBM KLCI) advanced 7.11 points to 1,602.40 points compared with1,595.29 at yesterday’s close.
The index opened 3.63 points weaker at 1,591.66 and moved between 1,585.44 and 1,602.77 throughout the day.
Bank Islam Malaysia Bhd economist Adam Mohamed Rahim said domestically, economic data showed that Malaysia’s Consumer Price Index grew by 0.1 per cent in February, ending 11 straight months of decline and thus signaling growth for the nation’s economy.
On the broader market, losers led gainers 633 to 438, while 477 counters were unchanged, 675 untraded and 11 others suspended.
Total volume fell to 6.95 billion shares valued at RM3.56 billion from 7.05 billion shares worth RM4.04 billion on Tuesday.
Adam noted that the local bourse bucked the trend of most regional peers, namely South Korea, Japan, Hong Kong and Indonesia, which saw their key index in the red during the day.
“Regional markets were in the red amid prospects of a slower economic growth due to fresh lockdowns in Europe combined with a potential tax hike in the United States (US),” he told Bernama.
Another reason for Wednesday’s recovery in the local market was that potential foreign investors piled back into the Malaysian economy after foreign funds turned net sellers on Bursa Malaysia last week.
This was also supported by a Standard Chartered study pointing that European and US companies ranked Malaysia as the second most favourable Southeast Asian country for opportunities to establish or expand their sourcing, selling or operations over the next six to 12 months.
Meanwhile, Adam said that the plantation and utilities index were among the gainers today with a 0.4 per cent gain, while the telecommunications and media index recorded the biggest loss of 0.6 per cent.
As for the top gainers among the heavyweights, PChem added 15 sen to RM8.07, MISC gained 16 sen to RM6.85, Tenaga rose 12 sen to RM10.82, Top Glove was seven sen better at RM5.12 and IOI Corp was six sen higher at RM4.30.
As for the active counters, DNeX added 9.5 sen to 98 sen and its warrants were 4.5 sen better at 34 sen, MMAG declined 10.5 sen at 39 sen, G Ocean was half-a-sen higher at 6.5 sen, SMI inched up three sen to 21 sen while Yong Tai rose one sen at 27 sen.
On the index board, the FBM Emas Index gained 24.67 points to 11,753.79, the FBMT 100 rose 25.57 points to 11,429.44, and the FBM Emas Shariah advanced 42.45 points to 13,063.34.
However, the FBM 70 reduced 62.71 points to 15,447.36 while the FBM ACE erased 72.75 points to 10,438.86.
Sector-wise, the Plantation Index increased 27.85 points to 7,163.05 and the Industrial Products and Services Index edged up 0.7 of-a-point to 191.12, but the Financial Services Index declined 18.45 points to 15,266.77.
Main Market volume fell to 4.05 billion shares worth RM2.74 billion from 4.45 billion shares worth RM3.25 billion yesterday.
Warrants turnover slipped to 275.66 million units worth RM44.29 million from 291.59 million units valued at RM47.12 million.
Volume on the ACE Market improved to 2.62 billion shares worth RM774.44 million from 2.31 billion shares worth RM742.79 million previously.
Consumer products and services accounted for 628.30 million shares traded on the Main Market, industrial products and services (799.50 billion), construction (148.34 million), technology (763.94 million), SPAC (nil), financial services (66.30 million), property (728.20 million), plantations (25.82 million), REITs (8.24 million), closed/fund (16,800), energy (619.77 million), healthcare (26.19 million), telecommunications and media (51.19 million), transportation and logistics (153.9 million), and utilities (34.1 million). — Bernama
