Bursa Malaysia’s KLCI bucks regional trend, banking stocks, Top Glove lift

KUALA LUMPUR, Dec 10 — Bursa Malaysia bucked the regional trend with the key index ending firmer for the fourth consecutive day, thanks to buying support in banking heavyweights and Top Glove.

At 5pm, the benchmark FTSE Bursa Malaysia KLCI (FBM KLCI) rose 7.86 points to finish at 1,654.39 after moving in the positive territory at between 1,647.65 and 1,658.07 throughout the day.

CIMB, which plans to reduce its coal financing exposure to zero by 2040, was the biggest contributor to the rise in the composite index, adding 4.44 points, followed by Public Bank (2.57 points) and Top Glove (2.39 points).

However, on the broader market, losers outnumbered gainers 643 to 568, while 463 counters were unchanged, 463 untraded and 19 others suspended.

Total volume dwindled to 8.1 billion shares worth RM4.83 billion from 11.88 billion shares worth RM6.68 billion on Wednesday.

Most of the key regional bourses declined today, taking cue from the weak Wall Street overnight, coupled with concerns over rising Covid-19 cases.

Regionally, Hong Kong’s Hang Seng Index slipped 0.35 per cent to 26,410.59, Japan’s Nikkei 225 eased 0.23 per cent to 26,756.24 and South Korea’s Kospi trimmed 0.33 per cent to 2,746.46.

Among the heavyweights, Public Bank rose 34 sen to RM20.20, Top Glove gained 15 sen to RM6.99, while Maybank was flat at RM8.38.

Petronas Chemicals shed one sen to RM7.66, Tenaga fell 14 sen to RM10.50, Hartalega erased 30 sen to RM14.36, while IHH Healthcare was two sen lower at RM5.57.

As for the actives, XOX, AirAsia X and Metronic inched up half-a-sen each to 11.5 sen, nine sen and 11.5 sen respectively, IRIS bagged one sen to 36.5 sen  but Trive was flat at 1.5 sen.

On the index board, the FBM Emas Index chalked up 48.29 points to 11,922.87, the FBMT 100 Index advanced 51.19 points to 11,682.91, the FBM ACE rose 99.77 points to 11,039.91 and the FBM 70 put on 50.36 points to 15,337.83.

However, the FBM Emas Shariah Index declined 25.43 points to 13,480.99.

Meanwhile, the Industrial Products and Services Index added 0.17 of-a-point to 176.38, the Financial Services Index surged 261.13 points to 15,319.04, but the Plantation Index slipped 6.01 points for 7,355.01.

The Main Market volume fell to 4.72 billion shares worth RM3.76 billion from 7.31 billion shares worth RM5.35 billion yesterday.

Warrants turnover dropped to 674.26 billion units worth RM119.33 million from yesterday’s 870.69 billion units worth RM148.21 million.

Volume on the ACE Market dwindled to 2.7 billion shares worth RM943.75 billion from 3.7 billion shares worth RM1.18 billion previously.

Consumer products and services accounted for 860.04 million shares traded on the Main Market, industrial products and services (1.38 billion), construction (308.53 million), technology (435.97 million), SPAC (nil), financial services (246.69 million), property (475.62 million), plantations (88.32 million), REITs (12.39 million), closed/fund (57,100), energy (474.31 million), healthcare (78.90 million), telecommunications and media (53.45 million), transportation and logistics (250.58 million), and utilities (51.51 million). — Bernama