KUALA LUMPUR, May 30 — Bursa Malaysia closed higher today boosted by persistent buying in selected blue chips led by Public Bank and Petronas Gas.
At 5pm, the benchmark FTSE Bursa Malaysia KLCI (FBM KLCI) increased 12.83 points to 1,636.50 after opening 2.69 points lower at 1,620.98.
The index moved between 1,620.28 and 1,639.42 throughout the day.
Market breadth was positive as gainers beat losers 513 to 366 with 334 counters unchanged, 747 untraded and 103 others suspended.
Turnover rose to 2.47 billion units worth RM2.67 billion from Wednesday’s 1.95 billion units worth RM1.83 billion.
Bank Islam Malaysia Bhd chief economist Dr Mohd Afzanizam Abdul Rashid said the better stock market performance today was due to improving market sentiments especially the positive corporate developments as well as better first-quarter (Q1) corporate earnings which had spurred buying interest.
“For example, the actively traded stock since morning, AirAsia, which has declared a special dividend of 90 sen a share, provided some support to the market.
“Other than that, a few companies that posted higher results, including Petronas Gas, Petronas Dagangan and Axiata, have also supported the market movement today,” he told Bernama.
He said despite recording lower Q1 results, TNB posted a higher operating profit of RM2.5 billion compared with RM697.0 million in the preceding quarter, and this helped to lift the FBM KLCI.
At the close, AirAsia gained 22 sen to RM2.85 with 92.25 million shares transacted.
Petronas Gas rose 74 sen to RM17.56, Petronas Dagangan added 52 sen to RM25.32 and Axiata perked up 15 sen at RM4.56.
Among other heavyweights, Public Bank rose 60 sen to RM23.60, CIMB improved six sen to RM5.21 and MISC climbed 13 sen to RM6.94.
Of the actively-traded stocks, Bumi Armada rose one sen to 21 sen, Telekom Malaysia increased 74 sen to RM3.46 while Ekovest added two sen to 79.5 sen.
The FBM Emas Index added 119.24 points to 11,487.48 and the FBMT 100 was 116.83 points higher at 11,343.11.
The FBM Emas Shariah Index rose 115.80 points to 11,671.36, the FBM Ace Index gained 14.81 points to 4,306.28 but the FBM 70 bagged 258.30 points to 14,072.46.
Sector-wise, the Financial Services Index firmed up 154.75 points to 16,767.45, the Plantation Index shed 16.06 points to 6,811.24 and the Industrial Products and Services Index was 0.85 of-a-point lower at 159.29.
Main Market volume improved to 1.69 billion shares worth RM2.51 billion from 1.39 billion shares worth RM1.74 billion on Wednesday.
Warrants turnover swelled to 518.84 million units worth RM112.50 million from 278.73 million units worth RM47.71 million yesterday.
Volume on the ACE Market declined to 257.14 million shares valued at RM46.97 million from 282.49 million shares valued at RM46.98 million previously.
Consumer products and services accounted for 295.90 million shares traded on the Main Market, industrial products and services (202.22 million), construction (210.07 million), technology (88.73 million), SPAC (nil), financial services (43.75 million), property (119.26 million), plantation (18.11 million), REITs (15.42 million), closed/fund (30,000), energy (483.72 million), healthcare (20.62 million), telecommunications and media (128.15 million), transportation and logistics (35.09 million) and utilities (29.77 million). — Bernama
