KUALA LUMPUR, March 27 — Bursa Malaysia continued its uptrend for the fourth consecutive day, boosted by market optimism on today’s second stimulus package announcement.

At the 9.05am, key index FTSE Bursa Malaysia KLCI (FBM KLCI) gained 14.06 points to 1,342.15 compared to yesterday’s close of 1,328.09.

On the broader market, gainers outpaced losers 488 to 89, while 137 counters were unchanged, 1,296 untraded and 31 others suspended.

Turnover, meanwhile stood at 601.90 million worth RM258.05 million

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An analyst said the market continued its upward momentum as investors await today’s announcement on further government measures to prop up the local economy in the wake of Covid-19.

“The first stimulus package worth RM20 billion missed the window of opportunity and failed to boost market optimism due to local political instability.

“However, with the current extended movement control order (MCO), it is important for investors to see the government’s next move in addressing the Covid-19 pandemic,” she said.

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Two days ago, the government announced a six-month moratorium on loan repayments and the restructuring of outstanding credit card balances to alleviate financial impacts arising from the pandemic.

As of yesterday, the health crisis had claimed 23 lives in Malaysia with more than 2,000 cases of infection recorded.

Meanwhile, the S&P 500 rose more than six per cent at Thursday’s close after the US Senate passed a US$2 trillion fiscal package to fight the outbreak.

This leads to an equity benchmarks gains of more than two per cent in Tokyo and Seoul, while early gains in Australia gave way to a modest retreat.

On the heavyweight performance, 22 out of 30 counters recorded gains with financial counters leading the pack as Maybank gained 10 sen to RM7.37, Public Bank added 28 sen to RM15.82 and CIMB Group rose seven sen to RM3.57.

As for top gainers, consumer products and services stocks continued to dominate the chart with Nestle gaining RM1.90 to RM138.90, Panasonic Manufacturing adding RM1.28 to RM26.28 while sin counters Heineken and Carlsberg both shoot up 70 sen and 60 sen respectively to RM22.60 and RM25.80 respectively.

Oil counters meanwhile continue to be the top active with Sapura Energy, Bumi Armada and Hibiscus all inched half-a-sen to eight sen, 14 sen and 34 sen respectively.

The overall index performance was mostly positive, with the FBM Emas Index surging 126.06 points to 9,190.51 while the FBM 70 gained 222.91 points to 10,551.49 and the FBM Emas Shariah Index garnered 115.70 points to 10.020.07.

The FBMT 100 Index increased 116.51points to 9,120.17 and the FBM Ace rose 69.40 points to 3,748.82.

Sector-wise, the Industrial Products and Services Index added 1.87 points to 104.43, the Plantation Index slightly lost 0.96 points to 6,055.11 and the Financial Services Index was 185.03 points higher at 12,288.4. — Bernama