Bursa Malaysia reverses earlier losses to end higher

KUALA LUMPUR, Oct 9 ― The local bourse rebounded from losses earlier in the day to finish higher, propped up by buying interest from institutional buyers.

At the close, the FTSE Bursa Malaysia (FBM KLCI) rose 10.92 points to 1,530.35 following active trading that began in mid-afternoon after a stretch of monotony since morning.

Throughout the day, the benchmark indext hovered between 1,521.74 and 1,532.53.

On the broader market, gainers thumped losers 718 to 307 while 412 counters were unchanged, 710 untraded and 40 others suspended.

Total volume increased to 6.60 billion units worth RM2.89 billion compared with 6.28 billion units worth RM3.23 billion yesterday.

An analyst said institutional players were the main players for the day, buying stocks that had been placed in an oversold position.

“Retail investors have been largely absent from the market movement over the week, except on small-cap stocks.

“Institutional investors, meanwhile, are repositioning its holdings into stocks with potential uptrend,” she said.

On the technical side, she said the underlying support remained strong at 1,480 while the immediate resistance was placed at 1,540, which was still a long way for the local bourse to reach the 1,600 benchmark due to the ongoing political instability, upcoming 2021 budget as well as the US presidential election.

 As the market wrapped, small and medium-cap stocks emerged as the biggest gainers for the day, rising 1.24 per cent and 1.23 per cent, respectively.

Among the heavyweights, Hartalega added 40 sen to RM17.40, Maybank rose 10 sen to RM7.40, Tenaga Nasional gained 14 sen to RM10.40, MISC was 17 sen higher at RM7.10 and Sime Darby Plantation increased 11 sen to RM5.16.

Among the active counters were politically-linked stocks, namely Advance Synergy which added 4.5 sen to 26.5 sen and Pan Malaysia which gained four sen to 18.5 sen, while Malayan United was flat at 14 sen.

On the index board, the FBM Emas Index advanced 62.75 points to 11,020.92 and the FBM Emas Shariah Index improved 67.02 points to 13,130.73.

The FBM 70 inched up 1.45 points to 14,364.64, the FBMT 100 Index strengthened 58.01 points to 10,840.81 and the FBM ACE leaped 71.47 points to 10,557.15.

Sector-wise, the Financial Services Index was 84.22 points higher at 12,664.38, the Plantation Index added 43.90 points to 7,075.22 and the Industrial Products and Services Index was 0.63 of-a-point stronger at 141.97.

Warrants turnover declined to 435.28 million units worth RM91.55 million from yesterday’s 589.31 million units worth RM107.06 million.

Volume on the ACE Market fell to 1.28 billion shares worth RM373.40 million from 1.72 billion shares worth RM604.08 million yesterday.

Consumer products and services accounted for 2.43 billion shares traded on the Main Market, industrial products and services (697 million), construction (157.72 million), technology (367.82 million), SPAC (nil), financial services (25.97 million), property (442.57 million), plantations (34.08 million), REITs (3.75 million), closed/fund (13,100), energy (403.27 million), healthcare (57.58 million), telecommunications and media (54.03 million), transportation and logistics (58.92 million), and utilities (148.87 million). ― Bernama