BURSA Malaysia made a strong rebound after two consecutive days of losses to close at its intraday high on Thursday, with the key index advancing 1.15%, mainly driven by technology, telecommunications and healthcare counters.
At 5pm, the FTSE Bursa Malaysia KLCI (FBM KLCI) rose 17.14 points to reach its intraday high of 1,507.71 compared with Wednesday’s close of 1,490.57.
The benchmark index opened 1.09 points firmer at 1,491.66.
On the broader market, gainers led decliners 611 to 276, with 392 counters unchanged, 956 untraded, and nine others suspended.
Total turnover increased to 2.65 billion units worth RM1.89 bil from 1.91 billion units worth RM1.35 bil on Wednesday.
Rakuten Trade Sdn Bhd vice-president of equity research Thong Pak Leng said regionally, key indices ended mostly higher following positive cues from Wall Street overnight.
At the same time, he said foreign funds have continued to flow into the region given the growth potential in regional equity markets.
“Back home, we are cautiously optimistic given the improvement in the local market sentiment amid foreign support. As such, we anticipate the benchmark index to (sustain) its uptrend towards the weekend.
“After breaking the 1,500 level, we see the next resistance at 1,530 level, while support is at the 1,460 level,” he told Bernama.
Thong reckons that investors had been more focused on upcoming corporate results than geopolitics in the Taiwan Strait.
“I think investors will be busier looking at corporate results for now,” he said.
State-run media reported on Thursday that China’s military has begun live fire exercises in waters and airspace around Taiwan.
Back home, among the heavyweight stocks, Maybank rose 7 sen to RM8.90, both Public Bank and IHH Healthcare were 4 sen higher at RM4.65 and RM6.46, respectively, CIMB added 2 sen to RM5.25, while Petronas Chemicals lost 4 sen to RM8.86.
Of the actives, Dagang Nexchange gained 7 sen to 88 sen, both PUC and Zen Tech fell half-a-sen each to 2 sen and 3 sen, respectively, CSH Alliance slid 1 sen to 5 sen and Metronic went down 2.5 sen to 7.5 sen. – Aug 4, 2022
