BURSA Malaysia closed broadly higher today with the key index snapping its four-day losing streak on better market sentiment, dealers said.
At the close, the key FTSE Bursa Malaysia KLCI (FBM KLCI) chalked up 15.58 points to 1,647.50 after moving between 1,627.53 and 1,652.59 throughout the session.
Over two-thirds of the index constituents recorded gains, with Petronas Chemicals being the largest contributor at 2.598 points to the gains in the composite index.
Major gainers among the 30-FBM KLCI constituents were Genting Malaysia, which rose 5.1% amid the positive vibes for the tourism sector following the launch of the National Tourism Policy 2020-2030 earlier today.
The overall market breadth was positive with gainers trouncing losers 841 to 355, while 627 counters were unchanged, 325 untraded and 38 others suspended.
Total volume decreased to 6.35 billion units worth RM3.42 bil from 7.84 billion units worth RM4.14 bil on Tuesday.
Bank Islam Malaysia Bhd economist Adam Mohamed Rahim said the upbeat stock market was lifted by some bargain hunting before the last trading day ahead of the long weekend.
“The FBM KLCI has seen a significant drop recently, so investors took advantage of this to do some ‘shopping’ or bargain hunting before the Christmas break.
“Nevertheless, the key index might fall tomorrow as investors will sell a lot before the long weekend,” he said.
Adam mentioned that the biggest loser among the sectoral indices was Bursa Malaysia Healthcare Index, which declined by 0.3% as more infections have been discovered in factories of rubber glove makers that could hamper the production of rubber gloves to fulfil the demand as a new variant of COVID-19 was found in the UK.
Meanwhile, a market analyst said positive sentiment emerged in the local bourse following promising news from pharmaceutical company, AstraZeneca, which announced that the first deliveries of its COVID-19 vaccine, AZD1222, to Malaysia would likely be in the first half of 2021.
Country president Dr Sanjeev Panchal in a statement said the company would be providing 6.4 million doses of its vaccine at no profit. – Dec 23, 2020
