KUALA LUMPUR: Bursa Malaysia stayed higher at mid-morning as market sentiment remained upbeat following the better overnight performance of the Wall Street, oil stockpiles prospect and China’s production data.
At 11am, the FTSE Bursa Malaysia KLCI (FBM KLCI) rose 3.25 points to 1,400.50 compared to 1,397.25 at yesterday’s close.
The index opened 6.22 points higher at 1,403.47.
Market breadth was positive with gainers surpassing losers 440 to 271, while 363 counters were unchanged, 819 untraded and 35 others suspended.
Turnover stood at 3.48 billion worth RM1.28 bil.
China’s industrial output recovered for the first time since Covid-19 outbreak, growing at 3.9% in April year-on-year but retail sales fell 7.5%, weaker than consensus projection of -6%.
AxiCorp’s chief market strategist Stephen Innes said the industrial production data came in better than the forecast of 1.5%.
“The miss on retail sales is providing poor optics suggesting consumption is falling well short of what was expected to be a pent-up demand rebound,” he said.
Of heavyweights, oil and gas-related players continued to see trading interest following the overnight rise in crude oil prices after the International Energy Agency said there are signs of a recovery in the stockpiles despite a likely drop in demand this month.
Among heavyweights, MISC rose 20 sen to RM8, Dialog was four sen better at RM3.37, Petronas Dagangan was six sen higher at RM19.78 and Petronas Gas improved two sen to 15.06.
In addition, Tenaga expanded 16 sen to RM12.32, while Hartalega retreated after a few days of rally, losing two sen to RM9.17 and Top Glove was flat at RM10.30.
Among actives counters, KNM inched up two sen to 17 sen, DGB Asia was unchanged at 2.5 sen, XOX was one sen up at 5.5 sen and JAG was unchanged at six sen.
On the index board, the FBM Emas Index expanded 29.22 points to 9,836.77, the FBMT 100 Index gained 28.57 points to 9,690.19, the FBM Emas Shariah Index added 37.66 points to 11,090.01, the FBM ACE climbed 56.15 points to 5,362.66 and the FBM 70 strengthened 60.22 points to 11,936.55.
Sector-wise, the Financial Services Index bagged 21.93 points to 12,237.08, the Industrial Products and Services Index inched up 0.05 of-a-point to 119.84, but the Plantation Index went down 36.17 points to 6,144.26. – May 15, 2020, Bernama
