KUALA LUMPUR, June 21 — Bursa Malaysia rebounded to end on a firmer note today, bucking the mainly negative regional trend, dealers said.

At 5pm, the FTSE Bursa Malaysia KLCI (FBM KLCI) rose 5.12 points, or 0.37 per cent to 1,393.45 from 1,388.33 at yesterday’s close.

The FBM KLCI, which opened 2.60 points lower at 1,385.73 this morning, moved between 1,383.88 and 1,395.85 throughout the session.

The broader market was positive as gainers surpassed decliners 422 to 415, while 436 counters were unchanged, 1,022 untraded and 18 others suspended.

Turnover increased to 3.06 billion units worth RM1.80 billion versus 2.85 billion units worth RM1.75 billion yesterday.

Rakuten Trade Sdn Bhd equity research vice-president Thong Pak Leng said the FBM KLCI closed higher as investors chased stocks at lower levels after yesterday’s selldown.

Key regional markets trended mainly down following the broadly mixed cues from major markets overnight as investors remained cautious ahead of US Federal Reserve chairman Jerome Powell’s congressional testimony later today.

"Locally, despite the improvement in the local market sentiment, we prefer to stay cautious as we reckon market volatility would stay high in the near term although the benchmark index remained in an oversold position.

"We believe buying interest in blue chips would remain, hence expect the key index to hover within the 1,385 to 1,400 range for the rest of the week. From a technical standpoint, the benchmark index has surpassed the 1,390 resistance and is poised to challenge the psychological 1,400 level,” he told Bernama.

Regionally, Hong Kong’s Hang Seng Index fell 1.98 per cent to 19,218.35, China’s SSE Composite Index lost 1.31 per cent to 3,197.90 and South Korea’s Kospi shed 0.86 per cent to 2,582.63.

Singapore’s Straits Times Index improved 0.22 per cent to 3,227.18 and Japan’s Nikkei 225 gained 0.56 per cent to 33,575.14.

On the local bourse, heavyweight stocks Maybank gained nine sen to RM8.74, Public Bank added three sen to RM3.91 and CIMB jumped 11 sen to RM5.25.

Tenaga Nasional shed three sen to RM9.19 and IHH Healthcare fell 13 sen to RM5.87.

Of the actives, Bumi Armada bagged 4.5 sen to 48.5 sen, RGB International gained 2.5 sen to 33.5 sen and Sarawak Consolidated improved one sen to 44.5 sen.

Classita added half-a-sen to 9.5 sen while Borneo Oil was flat at 1.5 sen.

On the index board, the FBM Emas Index was 44.92 points better at 10,250.46, the FBMT 100 Index climbed 44.97 points to 9,951.46 and the FBM 70 Index advanced 96.53 points to 13,477.88.

However, the FBM ACE Index eased by 1.04 points to 5,088.02.

Sector-wise, the Energy Index added 3.89 points to 783.89, the Industrial Products and Services Index gained 1.25 points to 159.29 and the Financial Services Index bounced 158.78 points to 15,472.29.

The Plantation Index gave up 16 points to 6,724.37.

The Main Market volume expanded to 2.15 billion units valued at RM1.55 billion from 1.96 billion units worth RM1.54 billion yesterday.

Warrant turnover increased to 395.97 million units worth RM50.68 million against 361.0 million units worth RM50.26 million previously.

The ACE Market volume declined to 509.32 million shares valued at RM202.59 million from 512.56 million shares worth RM163.45 million yesterday.

Consumer products and services counters accounted for 358.16 million shares traded on the Main Market, industrial products and services (857.59 million); construction (50.58 million); technology (150.07 million); SPAC (nil); financial services (86.84 million); property (184.45 million); plantation (51.54 million); REITs (8.25 million), closed/fund (59,500); energy (208.39 million); healthcare (74.02 million); telecommunications and media (48.68 million); transportation and logistics (19.86 million); and utilities (49.73 million). — Bernama