KUALA LUMPUR, Sept 25 ― Bursa Malaysia remained higher at mid-morning today as Malaysian bonds remained on the Watch List of the FTSE World Government Bond Index (WGBI).
At 11.02am, the benchmark FTSE Bursa Malaysia KLCI (FBM KLCI) jumped 12.35 points to 1,513.15 from yesterday’s close of 1,500.8.
The index opened 7.15 points higher at 1,507.95.
Gainers surpassed losers 570 to 249, while 371 counters were unchanged, 891 untraded and 21 others suspended.
Total volume stood at 2.28 billion units worth RM1.51 billion.
Maybank Investment Bank (Maybank IB) said while FTSE Russell has acknowledged Bank Negara Malaysia’s initiatives to improve market accessibility for foreign investors, it seems that more time is needed to assess the efficacies of these measures to maintain the Market Accessibility Level of Malaysia at 2 which is a minimum requirement for the WGBI.
“Measures that are acknowledged include more re-openings in the auction calendar to increase the average outstanding size per issuance, higher availability of Malaysia Government Securities via repo for market-making purpose and improvements in the Appointed Overseas Office programme, allowing Japanese local custodian banks to undertake third party FX and dynamic hedging,” it said in a note today.
Among the heavyweights, Maybank added two sen to RM7.11, Top Glove advanced 26 sen to RM8.81, TNB appreciated eight sen to RM10.90, Public Bank was 10 sen higher at RM15.62, and Hartalega surged RM1.02 to RM16.92.
Maxis was flat at RM4.96, Sime Darby Plantation eased one sen to RM5.04, MISC declined 13 sen to RM7.32 and Hong Leong trimmed six sen to RM14.84.
Of the actives, Advance Synergy rose 1.5 sen to 18.5 sen, Pegasus Heights inched up half-a-sen to three sen, Lambo Group and Pasukhas were flat at 3.5 sen and 7.5 sen, respectively, while MTouche and Sapura Energy edged down half-a-sen each to six sen and 10.5 sen, respectively.
On the index board, the FBM Emas Index advanced 93.42 points to 10,862.92 and the FBM Emas Shariah Index strengthened 141.06 points to 12,971.08.
The FBM 70 advanced 130.12 points to 14,048.14, the FBMT 100 Index was 90.22 points higher at 10,689.31 and the FBM ACE discounted 14.01 points to 10,219.73.
Sector-wise, the Financial Services Index went up 31.44 points to 12,366.88, the Plantation Index went down 21.3 points to 7,050.45, while the Industrial Products and Services Index gained 1.38 point to 132.53. ― Bernama
