KUALA LUMPUR, April 23 — Bursa Malaysia extended yesterday’s upswing to open higher today in line with most Asian markets, spurred by overnight gains on the Wall Street and positive investors’ reactions on earnings reports as well as signs of the easing of Covid-19 outbreak.
At 9.15am, key index FTSE Bursa Malaysia KLCI (FBM KLCI) rose 10.21 points to 1,392.10 from 1,381.89 at Wednesday’s close.
The key index opened 6.85 points better at 1,388.74.
Market breadth was bullish with losers thumped gainers 401 to only 63, while 164 counters were unchanged, 1,283 untraded and 19 others suspended.
Turnover stood at 627.05 million shares worth RM227.25 million.
Malacca Securities said the knee jerk pullback from the slumping crude oil prices over the past two days helped markets to adjust from their overbought positions as mild bargain hunting activities came to the fore with the help of the stabilising crude oil prices.
“Even with the continuing cautiousness, the key index managed to stage a decent recovery to erased all of its’ intraday losses yesterday. We see the recovery continuing to allow the key index march higher over the near term,” it said in a research note today.
As it is, it said market undertones of global indices are showing signs of stabilisation that will also extend to Malaysian equities.
“Consequently, we view the 1,400 psychological level as the immediate hurdle, followed by the 1,420 level. The supports, meanwhile, are at 1,370 and 1,340 levels respectively,” it added.
Moving forward, the research firm said that the lower liners and broader market shares should also be heading higher in tandem with the improved market sentiments.
This, it said, could entice more retail players to undertake bargain hunting activities, but there could also be quick profit-taking actions as the general market undertone is still cautious amid the prospects of the lower global economic outlook for the rest of the year.
Among heavyweights, Maybank rose three sen to RM7.53, TNB gained 16 sen to RM12.66, Public Bank improved 14 sen to RM15.86, IHH Healthcare went up four sen to RM5.16 and Petronas Chemicals perked 10 sen to RM5.44.
Of the actives, Vortex Consolidated added one sen to nine sen, Nexgram earned half-a-sen to two sen while Hubline and Xidelang were flat at five sen and eight sen, respectively.
On the index board, the FBM Emas Index was 78.53 points higher at 9,687.78, the FBM Emas Shariah Index advanced 88.58 points to 10,727.30, while the FBMT 100 Index increased 74.27 points to 9,564.40.
The FBM 70 jumped 106.34 points to 11,503.59 and the FBM Ace garnered 75.75 points to 4,428.57.
Sector-wise, the Industrial Products and Services Index inched up 1.21 points to 118.22, the Financial Services Index rose 80.84 points to 12,444.94 while the Plantation Index perked 14.73 points to 6,152.31. — Bernama
