BURSA Malaysia rebounded to end marginally higher due to bargain-hunting activities during the final hour of trading, said an analyst.
At 5pm, the benchmark FTSE Bursa Malaysia KLCI (FBM KLCI) gained 0.02% or 0.23 of-a-point to 1,515.99 from 1,515.76 at Wednesday’s close.
The key index which opened 0.72 of-a-point higher at 1,516.48, moved between 1,510.64 and 1,518.61 during the trading session.
The overall market breadth was however negative with losers outpacing gainers 589 to 329, while 395 counters were unchanged, 947 untraded, and 31 others suspended.
Total turnover declined to 2.22 billion units valued at RM1.77 bil versus Wednesday’s 2.36 billion units worth RM1.84 bil.
Rakuten Trade Sdn Bhd vice-president of equity research Thong Pak Leng said key regional indices meanwhile closed mostly lower as investors weighed the likelihood that the US Federal Reserve would raise interest rates in March.
Elsewhere, geopolitical tension surrounding Russia exerted additional downside pressure on equity markets globally.
“As for the local bourse, we reckon investor sentiment will remain soft for a short period due to the abovementioned factors, hence, we anticipate the index to trend around the 1,510-1,520 range towards the weekend,” he told Bernama.
Gainers were led by Kuala Lumpur Kepong which added 22 sen to RM21.72, Nestle which gained 20 sen to RM133 and Hartalega which rose 11 sen to RM5.60.
Among other heavyweights, Maybank was flat at RM8.30, Public Bank added 1 sen to RM4.21, Petronas Chemical fell 2 sen to RM8.90, IHH improved two sen to RM6.38 while CIMB eased 1 sen to RM5.25.
As for the most actives, DNeX was down 2.5 sen to 92 sen, Hibiscus Petroleum rose 9 sen to 97 sen, and Dataprep Holdings was 5 sen higher at 61.5 sen. – Jan 27, 2022
