BURSA Malaysia continued its upward trajectory for the fourth consecutive session today to breach the psychological 1,500 points level, driven by buying mainly in plantation and energy stocks, said a dealer.
At 5pm, the FTSE Bursa Malaysia KLCI (FBM KLCI) was 9.84 points or 0.65% higher to finish at 1,502.07 from Friday’s close of 1,492.23.
The benchmark index, which opened 0.44 of-a-point firmer at 1,492.67, moved between 1,490.69 and 1,503.83 throughout the day.
The overall market breadth was positive with gainers outpacing losers 546 to 355, while 407 counters were unchanged, 934 untraded, and 18 others suspended.
Total turnover was declined to 2.38 billion units worth RM1.49 bil from 2.79 billion units worth RM1.98 bil last Friday.
Rakuten Trade Sdn Bhd vice-president of equity research Thong Pak Leng said the key regional indices were also in the positive territory following upbeat cues from Wall Street last Friday.
Meanwhile, reports said China’s service sector activity in the republic continued to expand despite a slowdown in manufacturing, giving some boost to investor sentiment.
As for the local bourse, Thong said the FBM KLCI continued its uptrend, thanks to continuous foreign buying.
“Having broken the 1,500 resistance, we expect the benchmark index to remain positive for the mean time although we do not discount the possibility of some profit-takings.
“As such, we expect the FBM KLCI to trend higher, within the range of 1,495-1,515 for the week, with immediate resistance at 1,530 and support at 1,460,” he told Bernama.
On the local bourse, heavyweights Maybank improved 1 sen to RM8.87, Petronas Chemicals added 7 sen to RM8.95, IHH Healthcare increased 11 sen to RM6.50, CIMB gained 4 sen to RM5.25, while Public Bank was flat at RM4.64.
Of the actives, CSH Alliance was half-a-sen higher at 7.5 sen, Dagang NeXchange rose 2 sen to 82.5 sen, and UMediC was up 6 sen to 55 sen, while both Metronic Global and Sedania trimmed 1.5 sen each to 12.5 sen and 42 sen, respectively.
