BURSA Malaysia ended on a higher note today on bargain hunting in most sectors except plantation, ahead of the US Federal Reserve’s decision on its monetary policy stance, said an analyst.
At 5pm, the benchmark FTSE Bursa Malaysia KLCI (FBM KLCI) gained 0.45% or 6.85 points to 1,515.76 from 1,508.91 at Tuesday’s close.
The benchmark index, which opened marginally lower at 0.13 of-a-point to1,508.78 – its intraday low – went to a high of 1,520.15 during the morning session.
The overall market breadth was positive with gainers overwhelming losers 618 to 254, while 407 counters were unchanged, 1,001 untraded, and 30 others suspended.
Total turnover declined to 2.36 billion units worth RM1.84 bil versus Tuesday’s 2.80 billion units valued at RM2.14 bil.
Rakuten Trade Sdn Bhd vice-president of equity research Thong Pak Leng said key regional markets also performed better despite negative cues from Wall Street overnight as traders continued to pick up stocks at bargain prices after the recent sell-offs.
On the domestic front, he expected bargain hunting to continue given the cheap valuations of stocks, continuous inflow of foreign investors, and improving macroeconomic situation in the country.
“However, we reckon that the direction of the local market is still very much dependent on regional volatility.
“As such, we expect the key index to move within the 1,510-1,530 range for the remainder of the week, with immediate resistance at 1,530 and support at 1,500,” he told Bernama.
Of the heavyweights, Maybank added seven sen to RM8.30, Public Bank and Petronas Chemicals gained two sen each to RM4.20 and RM8.92 respectively, IHH Healthcare rose three sen to RM6.36, and CIMB perked up one sen to RM5.26.
As for the actives, DNeX widened 8.5 sen to 94.5 sen, Coraza added 9 sen to 90 sen, SMTrack eased one sen to 18 sen, and Senheng rose 5.5 sen to 91 sen. – Jan 26, 2022
