KUALA LUMPUR, April 27 — Bursa Malaysia opened on a positive note in almost all counters, driven by buying activities as positive market sentiment surrounded the local market.
At 9.05am, key index FTSE Bursa Malaysia KLCI (FBM KLCI) added 4.90 points to 1,374.75 from 1,369.85 at Friday’s close.
Market breadth was optimistic with gainers surpassing losers 282 to 59, while 189 counters were unchanged, 1,393 untraded and 38 others suspended.
Turnover stood at 267.34 million shares worth RM110.80 million.
An analyst said the careful approach adopted by Malaysia in reopening its economy to ensure no mass infection of Covid-19, has injected a higher level of confidence among investors that Malaysia is winning its battle against the global pandemic.
“While we are conducting drug trials together with WHO and the infection numbers are under control, the government is slowly opening economic sectors to resume its operations,” she said.
She added that the uptrend would continue backed by strong optimism by local investors, but is still largely influenced by global markets.
Meanwhile, on the global note; Rakuten in its equity note today said as global oil price stabilises, energy counters are expected to remain between its predicted range for the time being.
The global benchmark, Brent Crude was recorded at US$21.18 per barrel while WTI crude was recorded at US$16.14 per barrel.
“The FBM KLCI that has been rather resilient despite selling pressure last week,” it said.
It added that equity markets to remain in the turbulence as the regional indices may be stuck within a consolidation phase as the unemployment rate rises in the US.
US unemployment rate has spiked to 4.4 per cent so far in April from 3.5 per cent at the beginning of this year.
On heavyweight counters, Maybank gained seven sen to RM7.43, Public Bank rose 10 sen to RM15.92, IHH added one sen to RM5.12 while Petronas Chemical, CIMB Group and Digi all jumped three sen to RM5.30, RM3.53 and RM4.39 respectively.
Of the actives, Careplus and LKL both inched up two sen to 45 sen and 29.5 sen while ES Ceramics added 6.5 sen to 42 sen.
As for top loser, MISC declined 20 sen to RM7.60 followed by Dutch Lady which shrunk 16 sen to RM47.80 and KLK reduced eight sen to RM20.22.
On the index board, the FBM Emas Index was 42.18 points stronger at 9,596.82, the FBMT 100 Index increased 40.75 points to 9,463.42, the FBM Emas Shariah Index advanced 40.75 points to 9,473.42, the FBM ACE appreciated 30.73 points to 4,479.91 while the FBM 70 earned 78.29 points to 11,510.79.
Sector-wise, the Financial Services Index expanded 75.96 points to 12,330.02, the Industrial Products and Services Index gained 0.62 points to 116.30 and the Plantation Index declined 9.45 points to 6,124.02. — Bernama
