KUALA LUMPUR, Dec 9 — Bursa Malaysia closed higher to extend its winning streak to a third day today, lifted by hefty gains in the banking stocks led by Public Bank.
At 5 pm, the benchmark FTSE Bursa Malaysia KLCI (FBM KLCI) rose 14.83 points to settle at 1,646.53 after moving between 1,638.77 and 1,654.15 throughout the day.
The key index hovered in positive territory during the entire trading session on the back of positive market sentiment brought about by COVID-19 vaccine news and hopes for a stimulus package in the United States.
Public Bank contributed 10.59 points to the rise in the composite index after increasing RM1.40 to RM19.86, with 19.84 million shares changing hands on the back of its bonus issue announcement.
As for other banking stocks, Maybank increased 14 sen to RM8.38, Hong Leong expanded 66 sen to RM18.88, RHB rose 20 sen to RM5.80, Hong Leong Financial improved 40 sen to RM17.60, and CIMB gained 12 sen to RM4.05
These gains helped boost the Financial Services Index, which surged 493.55 points to 15,057.91.
However, on the broader market, losers outnumbered gainers 743 to 524, while 433 counters were unchanged, 439 untraded and 36 others suspended.
Total volume increased to 11.88 billion shares worth RM6.68 billion from 11.26 billion shares worth RM6.39 billion today.
Bank Islam Malaysia Bhd economist Adam Mohamed Rahim said sentiment in the market was spurred by the positive development on the COVID-19 vaccines with the United Kingdom becoming the first Western nation to embark on a vaccination campaign.
“Johnson & Johnson reported that it could obtain late-stage trial results for a single-dose vaccine in January, much earlier than expected.
“Meanwhile, Pfizer Inc cleared another hurdle when the United States health regulator released documents flagging no new safety or efficacy concerns,” he told Bernama.
He also said that AirAsia’s BigPay lending facility—which is likely to be approved next year—also helped to lift buying sentiment for banking stocks.
AirAsia X picked up 1.5 sen to 8.5 sen but AirAsia Group slipped half-a-sen to 87.5 sen.
Among the heavyweights, Tenaga lost 12 sen to RM10.64, Petronas Chemicals bagged seven sen to RM7.67, and Hartalega was flat at RM14.66.
Top Glove fell 25 sen to RM6.84 despite posting another record-breaking quarter in the first quarter of its financial year ended Aug 31, 2021, with its net profit surging over 20 times to RM2.38 billion from RM111.43 million in the same quarter last year.
As for the actives, XOX inched up half-a-sen to 11 sen, Sino Hua-An added one sen to 12 sen and AT Systematization slipped half-a-sen to 19 sen.
On the index board, the FBM Emas Index climbed 58.79 points to 11,874.58, the FBMT 100 Index advanced 63.09 points to 11,631.72 and the FBM ACE gained 82.55 points to 10,940.14.
However, the FBM 70 erased 80.07 points to 15,287.47 and the FBM Emas Shariah Index lost 93.45 points to 13,506.43.
Meanwhile, the Industrial Products and Services Index added 0.69 of-a-point to 176.21, but the Plantation Index gave up 8.69 points for 7,361.02.
The Main Market volume increased to 7.31 billion shares worth RM5.35 billion from 6.96 billion shares worth RM4.98 billion on Tuesday.
Warrants turnover dropped to 870.69 billion units worth RM148.21 million from yesterday’s 912.33 billion units worth RM162.65 million.
Volume on the ACE Market widened to 3.7 billion shares worth RM1.18 billion from 3.38 billion shares worth RM1.25 billion previously.
Consumer products and services accounted for 2.1 billion shares traded on the Main Market, industrial products and services (1.72 billion), construction (454.85 million), technology (282.86 million), SPAC (nil), financial services (161.8 million), property (676.46 million), plantations (111.73 million), REITs (14.4 million), closed/fund (21,400), energy (1.16 billion), healthcare (144.37 million), telecommunications and media (115.32 million), transportation and logistics (319.51 million), and utilities (56.11 million). — Bernama
