BURSA Malaysia ended today on a higher note across the board, driven by buying from local institutions as well as domestic retail investors.
At the close, the key index FTSE Bursa Malaysia KLCI (FBM KLCI) gained 8.10 points to 1,380.30 from yesterday’s close of 1,372.20.
Market breadth was also positive with gainers outpacing losers by 629 to 250, while 328 counters were unchanged, 696 not traded and 71 others suspended.
Turnover stood at 4.82 billion units worth RM2.46 bil compared with yesterday’s 5.02 billion units worth RM2.49 bil.
For the day, industrial products as well as services and consumer product counters emerged as top gainers, with total transactions worth RM693 mil on the back of positive market sentiment.
An analyst said as the government slowly lifts the movement control order (MCO) and businesses start to operate as usual, the market reacted positively amid the backdrop of local uncertainty.
Since the MCO started, the country had lost nearly RM100 bil due to business suspension. Coupled with the troubling oil price, the government’s revenue has dropped drastically.
“However, following the declining number of new cases, economic activities that were halted are now being resumed slowly, which will create job opportunities again,” the analyst said.
Malaysia today recorded 94 new Covid-19 cases with 72 of them being returning students from Indonesia and are in quarantine.
Local transmission meanwhile stood at 22 cases with zero added fatality.
The Ministry of International Trade and Industry yesterday announced that some sectors have been allowed to resume operations at 100% capacity, including construction and construction-related services, starting today.
This move will restore almost two million jobs that were previously hanging by a thread due to the MCO which was implemented to curb the spread of Covid-19.
On global developments, the analyst said investors were awaiting for the announcement from the US Federal Reserve (Fed) today on the expected discussions on the guidance for the economy to move forward.
“US interest rates are now near zero, but with staggering unemployment data, the Fed would have to decide on how long the rates would stay while banks continue to provide liquidity to the market,” she said.
The US had since Monday slowly lifted its lockdown despite cases hitting the one million mark with 58,964 deaths, the highest in the world.
On the performance of index-linked companies on Bursa, IHH was the day’s top performer, rising nine sen to RM5.21, Petronas Chemicals and Maybank both added five sen to RM5.41 and RM7.41, while Public Bank rose six sen to RM16.
Of the actives, NETX, Xidelang and AirAsia X all inched up half a sen to 1.5 sen, seven sen and 11 sen respectively.
Top gainers included Ajinomoto which rose 46 sen to RM14.26, Heineken which added 34 sen to RM23.90 and Carlsberg which increased 34 sen to RM28.14.
Meanwhile, among the top losers, MISC remained in the red due to its arbitration conflict, shedding 48 sen to RM7.90, while United Plantation declined eight sen to RM24.62 due to the lower consumption outlook for palm oil.
On the index board, the FBM Emas Index was 79.04 points stronger at 9,637.06, the FBMT 100 Index increased 70.93 points to 9,507.23, the FBM Emas Shariah Index advanced 96.06 points to 10,707.85, the FBM ACE added 68.91 points to 4,701.93 while the FBM 70 surged 148.45 points to 11,533.78.
Sector-wise, the Financial Services Index expanded 58.73 points to 12,257.53, the Industrial Products and Services Index inched up 1.11 points to 115.43, while Plantation Index rose 91.76 points to 6,245.96.
Main Market volume increased to 3.30 billion shares worth RM2.12 bil from yesterday’s 3.03 billion shares valued at RM2.03 bil.
Warrants turnover meanwhile declined to 243.59 million units worth RM59.47 mil from yesterday’s 269.78 million units worth RM69.91 mil.
Volume on the ACE Market slipped to 1.27 billion shares worth RM276.05 mil from Tuesday’s 1.71 billion shares worth RM388.48 mil.
Consumer products and services accounted for 625.83 million shares traded on the Main Market, industrial products and services (582.59 million), construction (306.52 million), technology (573.53 million), SPAC (nil), financial services (55.59 million), property (313.76 million), plantations (27.71 million), REITs (11.87 million), closed/fund (100), energy (451.77 million), healthcare (34.04 million), telecommunications and media (160.43 million), transportation and logistics (144.78 million), and utilities (18.84 million). — April 29, 2020, Bernama
