BURSA Malaysia ended the week broadly higher due to bargain-hunting in the lower liners and technology stocks, an analyst said.
At 5pm, the benchmark FTSE Bursa Malaysia KLCI (FBM KLCI) advanced 0.26% or 4.03 points to 1,520.02 from 1,515.99 at Thursday’s close.
The key index which opened 2.26 points higher at 1,518.25, moved between 1,517.96 and 1,522.95 during the trading session.
The overall market breadth was positive with gainers outpacing losers 494 to 361, while 441 counters were unchanged, 972 untraded, and 79 others suspended.
Total turnover declined to 2.00 billion units valued at RM1.54 bil versus Thursday’s 2.22 billion units worth RM1.77 bil.
According to the analyst, the higher earnings in Apple Inc has somewhat lifted interest in the technology sector, as well as the Technology index.
Meanwhile, Rakuten Trade Sdn Bhd vice-president of equity research Thong Pak Leng said the bargain-hunting also emerged for the banking stocks.
“Besides, the uptrend in crude palm oil and Brent crude, which stayed above RM5,600 per tonne and close to US$90 per barrel, respectively, has also attracted some buying interest on plantation and oil and gas stocks,” he told Bernama.
Regionally, Japan’s Nikkei 225 gained 2.09% despite the negative cues overnight from Wall Street as investors picked up stocks at bargain prices following the recent sell-offs.
Among other heavyweights, Maybank and Public Bank added 1 sen at RM8.31 and RM4.22 respectively, Petronas Chemicals was flat at RM8.90, IHH rose 2 sen to RM6.40, and CIMB increased 3 sen to RM5.28.
As for the most actives, SMTrack lost half-a-sen to 16 sen, AHB Holdings added 2.5 sen to 13 sen, DNeX was 1.5 sen higher to 93.5 sen, while Opcom rose 5 sen to RM1.05.
