KUALA LUMPUR: Bursa Malaysia ended higher today lifted by last-minute buying supported mainly by financial services stocks, despite the easier performance on most regional markets, analysts said.
At 5 pm, the FTSE Bursa Malaysia KLCI (FBM KLCI) was up 0.11%, or 1.72 points, to 1,554.49 from Thursday’s close of 1,552.77.
The benchmark index, which opened 1.52 points better at 1,554.29, moved between 1,546.08 and 1,554.91 throughout the day.
On the broader market, losers led gainers by 457 to 377, with 378 counters unchanged, 773 untraded and 23 others suspended.
Turnover decreased to 2.74 billion shares worth RM2.17 bil from 3.07 billion shares valued at RM2.47 bil on Thursday.
Online equity broker Rakuten Trade Sdn Bhd’s head of research Kenny Yee said bargain hunting emerged as investors reacted positively to Malaysia’s December 2019 manufacturing sales, which grew by 5.2% to RM76.1 bil compared with RM72.3 bil in December 2018.
“We think this has lent support to the equity market especially the banking sector, as it indicated strong support in domestic demand and underlying financial economy,” Yee told Bernama.
Besides that, he said investors were also hoping that the proposed stimulus packages by the government would be brought forward if the 2019 novel coronavirus outbreak further worsened the economy.
“We think it would help to minimise the impact on sectors including manufacturing, tourism and construction that have been affected by the outbreak and support the overall economic growth,” he said.
Among heavyweights, Maybank added six sen to RM8.51, Tenaga eased 14 sen to RM12.74 and Public Bank dropped six sen to RM18.34.
Hong Leong Financial Group advanced RM1.12 to RM17.28, CIMB increased 13 sen to RM5.15 and Maxis gained five sen to RM5.45.
Of the actives, AirAsia Group was up eight sen to RM1.31, Binacom rose 6.5 sen to 54 sen but DGB shed half-a-sen to 9.5 sen.
On the index board, the FBM Emas Index recovered 12.75 points to 11,060.17, the FBMT 100 Index rose 12.59 points to 10,860.72 but the FBM Emas Shariah Index fell 18.38 points to 11,766.21.
The FBM 70 perked up 18.23 points to 13,824.68 and the FBM Ace expanded 41.25 points to 5,521.78.
Sector-wise, the Industrial Products and Services Index eased 0.72 point to 145.38, the Plantation Index was down 3.48 points to 7,307.91 but the Financial Services Index was 132.02 points higher at 14,981.16.
Main Market volume declined to 1.54 billion shares valued at RM1.84 bil from 1.81 billion shares worth RM2.15 bil on Thursday.
Warrants turnover decreased to 406.22 million units worth RM57.40 mil from 545.93 million units valued at RM88.43 mil yesterday.
Volume on the ACE Market advanced to 788.18 million shares valued at RM260.27 mil from 714.82 million shares worth RM234.93 mil previously.
Consumer products and services accounted for 356.09 million shares traded on the Main Market, industrial products and services (309.95 million), construction (103.48 million), technology (148.15 million), SPAC (nil), financial services (45.24 million), property (96.80 million), plantations (65.07 million), REITs (13.93 million), closed/fund (20,400), energy (204.96 million), healthcare (49.94 million), telecommunications and media (70.77 million), transportation and logistics (46.24 million), and utilities (31.53 million). – Feb 7, 2020, Bernama
