BURSA Malaysia recouped earlier losses to close at its intra-day high today after experiencing choppy trading throughout the day.
As at 5pm, the benchmark FTSE Bursa Malaysia KLCI (FBM KLCI) rose 5.15 points to end at 1,545.04 compared with 1,539.89 yesterday.
The index opened 0.5 of-a-point higher at 1,540.39 this morning and hit a low of 1,536.45 later before rebounding towards the close.
On the broader market, gainers led losers 462 to 393, while 449 counters were unchanged, 1,007 untraded, and 37 others suspended.
Turnover increased to 2.41 billion units valued at RM1.83 bil from Tuesday’s 2.16 billion units valued at RM1.65 bil.
Bank Islam Malaysia Bhd chief economist Dr Mohd Afzanizam Abdul Rashid said the key index put on modest gains during the afternoon session after enduring a slight decline in the morning.
“A total 449 counters ended up higher today versus 393 decliners, suggesting that the market is well supported. The current resistance level is located at 1,564.80 points and given that window dressing is typically associated at the year’s end, the benchmark index could settle higher around that level,” he told Bernama.
He added that in the absence of key economic data, the market condition can be quite fluid and positive news over Omicron could be a key catalyst to lift the benchmark index higher this week.
Among the heavyweights, Maybank perked up three sen to RM8.33, Public Bank, Petronas Chemicals, CIMB, and Tenaga added one sen each to RM4.19, RM8.89, RM5.43 and RM9.36, respectively, while IHH lost one sen to RM6.75.
Of the actives, XOX and AT Systematization were both flat at three sen and 3.5 sen, respectively, SMTrack added one sen to 15.5 sen, Swift rose 5 sen to RM1, and ATA IMS was two sen better at 63.5 sen. – Dec 29, 2021
