PERSISTENT buying support in selected consumer products and healthcare counters has pushed Bursa Malaysia to end at the day’s high, tracking positive sentiment across most of the regional markets, dealers said.
At 5 pm, the FTSE Bursa Malaysia KLCI (FBM KLCI) increased 15.04 points to 1,623.47 compared to Friday’s close of 1,608.43.
The market bellwether opened 2.31 points higher at 1,610.74 and moved to a low of 1,610.47 during trading session.
Overall market breadth turned positive at the last leg of trading as gainers surpassed losers by 578 versus 560, while 409 counters were unchanged, 650 untraded and 41 suspended.
Total volume surged to 8.30 billion shares worth RM5.59 bil from 6.55 billion shares worth RM4.19 bil on Friday.
A dealer said most Asian markets were on the uptrend today with Chinese shares near three-week highs as signs of the world economic recovery bolstered risk appetite.
He added that investors are also waiting for the outcome of the United States’ Federal Open Market Committee meeting this week for any further market direction moving forward.
He said the US Federal Reserve has stated that it will maintain its accommodative monetary policy stance for some time, providing Asian countries with some breathing space in terms of further policy easing.
Regionally, Japan’s Nikkei was lower by 0.36 per cent to 29,126.23, China’s Hang Seng slipped 0.43% to 28,952.83 while Singapore’s Straits Times Index added 0.44 per cent to 3,208.49.
Back home, Nestle and Careplus Group were among the top gainers, rising RM1.50 to RM136.50 and 51 sen to RM2.76 respectively.
Among heavyweights, Maybank gained 10 sen to RM8.36, Public Bank went up 2.0 sen to RM4.19, Petronas Chemicals improved 4.0 sen to RM7.91 while Tenaga was flat at RM10 and IHH declined 8.0 sen to RM5.40.
Among the active counters, Minda Global and Focus Dynamics advanced 2.0 sen each to 19 sen and 14.5 sen respectively, AT Systematization earned half-a-sen to 10.5 sen while Nova MSC increased 1.5 sen to 15.5 sen. – April 26, 2021
