KUALA LUMPUR, July 27 — Bursa Malaysia extended its winning streak for the sixth consecutive trading day amid positive investor sentiment, said an analyst.

At 5pm, the FTSE Bursa Malaysia (FBM) KLCI rose 1.98 points to 1,451.27 from 1,449.29 at yesterday’s close.

The market bellwether opened 1.63 points lower at 1,447.66 this morning and moved between 1,446.92 and 1,456.36 throughout the day.

The broader market was also positive as advancers beat decliners 507 to 443, while 423 counters were unchanged, 920 untraded and 31 others suspended.

Turnover stood at 3.73 billion units worth RM2.44 billion.

The FBM KLCI has gained 48.24 points over the last six trading days.

Rakuten Trade Sdn Bhd equity research vice-president Thong Pak Leng said on the domestic front, he is positive on local equities as consensus opinion remains confident that corporate earnings from heavyweights will remain solid.

"Furthermore, we believe Prime Minister Datuk Seri Anwar Ibrahim plans to rebuild and position Malaysia among the world's 30 largest economies in less than 10 years, namely ‘Madani Economy: Empowering Rakyat’ will provide an additional boost to market sentiment,” he told Bernama.

In the meantime, Thong said the FBM KLCI is overbought in the short term, hence, he expects some pullback in the near future, which he believes is healthy as it allows the market to digest recent buying activities.

"As such, we anticipate the FBM KLCI to trend within the range of 1,445-1,455 towards the weekend with immediate resistance at 1,460 while forming a new support level at 1,430,” he added.

Among the heavyweights, Public Bank gained three sen to RM4.11, CIMB rose by two sen to RM5.50 and Tenaga Nasional was flat at RM9.60, while Maybank eased one sen to RM8.99 and Petronas Chemicals slid 19 sen to RM6.81.

Of the actives, Capital A increased 7.5 sen to 91.5 sen, Datasonic Group was two sen higher at 47 sen, AT Systematization was flat at one sen, while Hong Seng Consolidated slid half-a-sen to 8.5 sen and UEM Sunrise trimmed 5.5 sen to 48.5 sen.

On the index board, the FBM Emas Index rose 11.02 points to 10,661.38, the FBMT 100 Index was 9.20 points better at 10,349.15, the FBM ACE Index climbed 11.23 points to 5,331.54 while the FBM 70 Index dropped 8.65 points to 13,951.72 and the FBM Emas Shariah Index gave up 3.36 points to 10,929.46.

Sector-wise, the Financial Services Index garnered 62 points to 16,164.88, the Energy Index widened by 2.27 points to 836.69, while the Plantation Index decreased by 6.62 points to 7,205.55 and the Industrial Products and Services Index shaved 1.13 points to 167.10.

The Main Market volume reduced to 2.70 billion units valued at RM2.17 billion from 3.01 billion units valued at RM2.14 billion on Wednesday.

Warrant turnover declined to 323.84 million units worth RM47.52 million versus 368.29 million units worth RM54.34 million previously.

The ACE Market volume slipped to 697.60 million shares valued at RM226.42 million compared to 865.50 million shares valued at RM273.40 million yesterday.

Consumer products and services counters accounted for 545.31 million shares traded on the Main Market, industrial products and services (403.44 million); construction (228.40 million); technology (611.03 million); SPAC (nil); financial services (92.86 million); property (488.28 million); plantation (34.65 million); REITs (14.55 million), closed/fund (13,500); energy (111.18 million); healthcare (55.63 million); telecommunications and media (51.17 million); transportation and logistics (23.20 million); and utilities (41.62 million). — Bernama