KUALA LUMPUR: Bursa Malaysia recovered from earlier losses to close higher today in tandem with regional peers, lifted by late buying in selected index-linked counters led by Axiata.
At 5 pm, the FTSE Bursa Malaysia KLCI (FBM KLCI) was 2.74 points higher at 1,587.88 compared with 1,585.14 at Wednesday’s close.
The index reversed its downtrend pattern 40 minutes before trading ended. It moved between 1,575.77 and 1,588.23 throughout the session.
Axiata pushed the composite index higher by 3.236 points after rising 20 sen to RM4.36 with 5.97 million shares changing hands.
On the broader market, losers outpaced gainers 448 to 377, with 396 counters remaining unchanged, 746 untraded and 24 others suspended.
Turnover improved slightly to 2.59 billion shares worth RM1.91 bil versus yesterday’s 2.54 billion shares worth RM1.68 bil.
Bank Islam Malaysia Bhd chief economist Dr Mohd Afzanizam Abdul Rashid said there seemed to be mixed reactions from the market following the signing of the Phase One deal between the US and China.
He opined that the deal was a little far-fetched.
“For instance, China will purchase at least US$40 bil per year of US food, agricultural and seafood products. This is way higher than the existing US exports of food to China,” he noted.
For the first 11 months of 2019, US exports of food and live animals to China stood at US$4.3 bil.
In 2018, it was at US$4.5 bil from US$7.3 bil in 2017.
“As such, it would be a big jump if China were to comply. Perhaps, this may have affected the equities market today,” he explained.
Regionally, Hong Kong’s Hang Seng Index rose 0.38% to 28,883.04, Japan’s Nikkei 225 gained 0.07% to 23,933.13 and Singapore’s Straits Times Index improved 0.51% to 3,273.72.
Of the other heavyweights, Maybank added one sen to RM8.61, Petronas Chemicals rose three sen to RM7.06, while both Public Bank and Tenaga were flat at RM19.56 and RM12.90 respectively.
CIMB, however, slipped one sen to RM5.17.
Among the actives, Vortex trimmed 1.5 sen to 12 sen, Yong Tai inched down half-a-sen to 14.5 sen, Alam Maritim and London Biscuits eased one sen each to 15.5 sen and 1.5 sen respectively, while Hubline was flat at four sen.
On the scoreboard, the FBM Emas Index improved 12.53 points to 11,315.7, the FBMT 100 Index advanced 13.53 points to 11,104.99, the FBM ACE bagged 25.96 points to 5,586.03, and the FBM Emas Shariah Index rose 24.6 points to 11,947.5.
However, the FBM 70 eased 5.93 points to 14,180.7.
Sector-wise, the Industrial Products and Services Index inched up 0.60 point to 154.01, but the Financial Services Index erased 34.21 points to 15,400.65 and the Plantation Index gave up 47.44 points to 7,519.42.
Main Market volume increased to 1.71 billion shares worth RM1.69 bil compared with 1.61 billion shares worth RM1.50 bil on Wednesday.
Warrants turnover advanced to 290.05 million units worth RM47.7 mil from yesterday’s 274.18 million units worth RM45.57 mil.
Volume on the ACE Market, however, decreased to 607.22 million shares worth RM176.44 mil from 658.01 million shares worth RM126.87 mil yesterday.
Consumer products and services accounted for 280.62 million shares traded on the Main Market, industrial products and services (195.72 million), construction (166.86 million), technology (219.32 million), SPAC (nil), financial services (36.88 million), property (171.95 million), plantations (109.38 million), REITs (11.65 million), closed/fund (77,500), energy (311.81 million), healthcare (17.19 million), telecommunications and media (34.41 million), transportation and logistics (125.77 million) and utilities (25.98 million). – Jan 16, 2020 Bernama
