KUALA LUMPUR: Bursa Malaysia crossed the 1,610 level to end higher today despite volatile trading throughout the day, backed by the strong performance of telecommunications and finance heavyweights.
At 5pm, the benchmark FTSE Bursa Malaysia KLCI (FBM KLCI) gained 13.28 points or 0.83% to finish at 1,611,04 compared with yesterday’s close of 1,597.76.
On the scoreboard, gainers surpassed losers 441 to 388 while 428 counters were unchanged, 679 were untraded and 13 were suspended.
Volume, meanwhile, declined to 2.98 billion shares worth RM1.79 bil compared with 3.39 billion shares worth RM1.63 bil yesterday.
An analyst said that with local bourse having surpassed the 1,600 benchmark, which is now the support level, the immediate resistance is located at 1,615.
“We can see the index moving between 1,596.42 and 1,612.60 today. With strong local catalysts and subsided US-Iran tension as well as a ‘Phase 1’ trade deal between the US and China taking place, the local bourse could move up further in near future,” she said.
However, she cautioned that the local market was still largely exposed to any unfavourable global outlook arising from economic as well as geopolitical situations.
Among the telecommunication counters, Axiata rose 20 sen to RM4.36 at the close, Digi gained four sen to RM4.53 while Maxis was 12 sen higher at RM5.45.
As for finance counters, CIMB gained seven sen to RM5.29, Hong Leong Bank increased six sen to RM17.66 and Public Bank perked 22 sen to RM20.12.
Among the top gainers, Nestle surged RM1.00 to RM147.50, PPB climbed 50 sen to RM19.28 and Kumpulan Powernet firmed up 17 sen to RM1.58.
As for the actives, Vortex Consolidated remained flat at 24 sen, Rimbunan Sawit rose four sen to 42 sen and TDM was one sen firmer at 39 sen.
The FBM Emas Index strengthened 70.74 points to 11,457.94 and the FBM Emas Shariah Index was 91.54 points higher at 12,088.04.
The FBMT 100 Index advanced 71.68 points to 11,252.32, the FBM 70 added 4.68 points to 14,308.76 while the FBM ACE grew 29.61 points to 5,454.44.
Sector-wise, the Industrial Products and Services Index inched up 1.17 points to 156.40, the Financial Services Index improved 86.03 points to 15,713.41 and the Plantation Index strengthened 38.54 points to 7,757.53.
Main Market volume declined to 2.20 billion units worth RM1.57 bil compared with 2.60 billion worth RM1.43 bil yesterday.
Warrants turnover also fell to 233.36 million valued at RM42.18 mil compared with 305.24 million worth RM49.56 mil on Monday.
Volume on the ACE Market, meanwhile, expanded to 643.12 million worth RM179.49 mil compared with 482.76 million shares worth RM14.83 mil yesterday.
Consumer products and services accounted for 239.46 million shares traded on the Main Market, industrial products and services (358.58 million), construction (115.91 million), technology (200.26 million), SPAC (nil), financial services (31.98 million), property (108.35 million), plantations (190.80 million), REITs (7.91 million), closed/fund (36,000), energy (739.22 billion), healthcare (14.03 million), telecommunications and media (27.20 million), transportation and logistics (38.96 million) and utilities (36.13 million). – Jan 7, 2020 Bernama
