KUALA LUMPUR, July 28 — Bursa Malaysia closed at its intra-day high today, as appetite for glove counters intensified amid the resurgence of new Covid-19 cases globally.
At 5pm, the benchmark FTSE Bursa Malaysia KLCI (FBM KLCI) jumped 18.46 points, or 1.16 per cent, to 1,609.94 from 1,591.48 at yesterday’s close.
The key index opened 3.16 points higher at 1,594.64 and hovered between 1,593.24 and 1,609.94 throughout the day.
Market breadth was positive, with gainers thumping losers 631 to 500, while 393 counters were unchanged, 485 untraded and 30 others suspended.
Trading volume widened to 11.85 billion units worth RM7.24 billion versus 11.61 billion units valued at RM6.23 billion yesterday.
A dealer said demand in glove counters surged after the World Health Organisation director-general Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus reportedly said yesterday that Covid-19 cases had doubled over the past six weeks, with nearly 16 million cases having been reported to the United Nations health agency along with more than 640,000 deaths worldwide.
Meanwhile, Rakuten Trade Sdn Bhd research vice president Vincent Lau said other than glove counters, positive news on the development of Covid-19 vaccines also boded well for healthcare counters.
“Overall, market sentiment was positive, as we saw the trading volume surpassing 11.8 billion units today, which was mainly supported by buying interest in penny stocks that include technology-linked equities,” he told Bernama.
After breaching the 1,600 resistance level today, Lau believed the bellwether would continue its uptrend for the rest of the week.
Among the 30 constituents of the FBM KLCI, glove maker Hartalega closed RM1.60 higher at RM19.90 after shooting up to it its record high of RM19.92 earlier in the day.
Similarly, Top Glove touched its all-time high of RM26.60 today before easing 52 sen to RM26.40 at the close.
IHH bagged 28 sen to RM5.65, Petronas Dagangan improved RM1.24 to RM21.54 and Hap Seng was 30 sen higher at RM8.95.
Top gainers were mostly dominated by glove stocks. Apart from Hartalega and Top Glove, those on the list included Kossan which added 60 sen to RM17.30, Rubberex which accumulated 59 sen to RM4.59, Supermax which leapt RM1.56 to RM19.00 as well as several of its (Supermax’s) call warrants.
Of the actives, XOX climbed 3.5 sen to 28 sen, AT Systematization perked two sen to 9.5 sen, Key Alliance ticked up one sen to 10 sen and MQ Technology was three sen better at 13 sen, while Borneo Oil was unchanged at 4.5 sen.
On the index board, the FBM Emas Index lifted 143.49 points to 11,466.50, the FBMT 100 Index grew 143.39 points to 11,302.76 and the FBM Emas Shariah Index was 223.33 points firmer at 13,448.19.
The FBM 70 added 239.46 points to 14,578.88 and the FBM ACE was 212.41 points higher at 8,476.58.
Sector-wise, the Plantation Index strengthened 22.25 points to 7,184.36, the Industrial Products and Services Index edged up 1.35 points to 141.47 while the Financial Services Index advanced 10.38 points to 13,368.46.
Main Market volume narrowed to 4.76 billion shares worth RM5.19 billion from 5.56 billion shares worth RM4.20 billion yesterday.
Warrants turnover, meanwhile, increased to 1.14 billion units valued at RM501.60 million versus 770.38 billion units valued at RM289.80 million yesterday.
Volume on the ACE Market expanded to 5.93 billion shares worth RM1.54 billion compared with 5.27 billion shares worth RM1.74 billion in the previous day.
Consumer products and services accounted for 797.15 million shares traded on the Main Market, industrial products and services (1.46 billion), construction (463.74 million), technology (497.91 million), SPAC (nil), financial services (77.27 million), property (298.07 million), plantations (124.47 million), REITs (11.11 million), closed/fund (19,100), energy (454.38 million), healthcare (160.65 million), telecommunications and media (93.07 million), transportation and logistics (280.50 million) and utilities (39.97 million). — Bernama
