KUALA LUMPUR, May 8 — Bursa Malaysia snapped its five-day losing streak to close on a firm note today, registering the biggest single-day gain since Jan 29, 2016.

Hermana Capital Bhd Chief Executive Officer and Chief Investment Officer Datuk Dr Nazri Khan Adam Khan said the uptrend today was driven mainly by foreign fund inflows as investors were confident that the ruling party — Barisan Nasional — would win with a comfortable majority of Parliament seats in the 14th General Election (GE14) tomorrow.

At the close, the benchmark FTSE Bursa Malaysia KLCI (FBM KLCI) rose 18.31 points, or one per cent, to 1,846.51 from yesterday’s close of 1,828.20.

The index opened 8.25 points lower at 1,819.95 and moved between 1,819.28 and 1,851.73 throughout the day.

Market breadth was positive with gainers outpacing losers 677 to 281, with 405 counters unchanged, 498 counters untraded and 15 others suspended.

Volume stood at 2.35 billion units valued at RM2.80 billion.

 Nazri Khan told Bernama that thus far, foreign fund inflows into the local equity market had accumulated to RM3.1 billion, making Bursa Malaysia the most favourable stock exchange in Asean.

"On today’s uptrend, we can see that it is a repeat of what happened during GE13, as foreign inflows amounted to RM300 million on May 4, 2013 alone, while on May 6, 2013, a day after the election, the foreign investment funds pumped into the local bourse surged to RM1.4 billion in a single day.

"This shows that the foreign investors are confident in the victory of the current ruling party,” he said.

Nazri Khan expected the market benchmark would see a relief rally on May 10 and hit an all-time high of 1,900, should the Barisan Nasional continue to stay in power after the election.

Meanwhile, RHB Research Institute Sdn Bhd Head of Malaysia Research Alexander Chia said the pre-election uptrend on Bursa Malaysia was expected as investors had repositioned themselves ahead of D-Day.

"This is exactly like what happened in GE13, as market participants had repositioned themselves in the market,” he said.

Among heavyweights, CIMB rose 23 sen to RM6.90, Maybank advanced 16 sen to RM10.70, Axiata and RHB Bank gained 18 sen each to RM5.29 and RM5.27, respectively, while IHH Healthcare was nine sen better at RM6.05.

For actives, Sapura Energy added three sen to 67 sen, Nexgram edged up half-a-sen to 6.5 sen, Hibiscus Petroleum bagged four sen to 86.5 sen, Opcom Holdings climbed 16 sen to 60.5 sen while UMW Oil and Gas was flat at 27.5 sen.

Nestle led the list of top gainers by advancing RM1.90 to RM137.00, while top loser F&N gave up 70 sen to RM10.40.

The FBM Emas Index leapt 132.70 points to 12,885.71, the FBMT 100 Index increased 130.23 points to 12,698.44, the FBM Emas Shariah Index bagged 104.71 points to 13,075.36, the FBM Ace added 99.80 points to 5,212.33 and the FBM 70 was 171.70 points higher at 15,303.26.

Sector-wise, , the Finance Index soared 297.01 points to 18,080.59, the Industrial Index pperked 12.29 points to 3,196.55 and the Plantation Index inched up 7.84 points to 7,849.72.

Main Market volume rose to 1.32 billion shares valued at RM2.60 billion from 1.06 billion shares valued at RM1.93 billion on Monday.

Warrants volume increased to 645.32 million units worth RM119.44 million versus 583.01 million units valued at RM115.70 million.

Volume on the ACE Market surged to 374.34 million shares worth RM81.06 million from 269.0 million shares worth RM41.52 million previously.

Consumer products accounted for 35.42 million shares traded on the Main Market, industrial products (277.26 million), construction (87.52 million), trade and services (633.32 million), technology (47.62 million), infrastructure (18.35 million), SPAC (9.58 million), finance (92.12 million), hotels (4.23 million), properties (93.11 million), plantations (24.59 million), mining (52,500), REITs (5.54 million), and closed/fund (6,300). — Bernama