BURSA Malaysia extended its rally with the key index ending the week at its intraday high for the third consecutive day, driven by positive sentiment and improved buying interest in banking, plantation and telecommunication heavyweights, a dealer said.
At 5pm, the FTSE Bursa Malaysia KLCI (FBM KLCI) advanced by 0.56% or 8.79 points to 1,578.89 from 1,570.10 at Thursday’s close.
The barometer index, which opened 5.80 points lower at 1,564.30, hit an intraday low of 1,562.91 in the morning session before gathering momentum in the afternoon session to close higher.
Overall market breadth was positive with advancers outnumbering decliners 509 to 446, while 407 counters were unchanged, 856 untraded, and 36 others suspended.
Total turnover narrowed to 3.19 billion units worth RM2.42 bil against 3.20 billion units worth RM2.62 bil at yesterday’s close.
Rakuten Trade Sdn Bhd vice-president of equity research Thong Pak Leng said investors were generally optimistic given the improvement in the local market sentiment and foreign support.
“However, they should remain cautious and stay alert on the increasing market volatilities and external uncertainties as most key regional markets ended lower following negative cues overnight from Wall Street,” he told Bernama.
On the local bourse, heavyweights Sime Darby Plantation gained 31 sen to RM4.23, KL Kepong improved RM1.40 to RM24.14, Maybank rose 2 sen to RM8.57, Public Bank was flat at RM4.35, Petronas Chemicals perked up 11 sen to RM9.22, while IHH Healthcare lost 1 sen to RM6.54.
As for the actives, KNM inched up 3 sen to 18.5 sen, Vortex Consolidated was half-a-sen lower at 7.5 sen, Dagang NeXchange firmed 2 sen to RM1.09, and SMTrack was half-a-sen higher at 19.5 sen.
