KUALA LUMPUR, March 9 — Bursa Malaysia ended on a firm note today, on persistent buying support in heavyweights led by Tenaga Nasional, Top Glove and telecommunication sector stocks.
Tenaga contributed 3.23 point to the barometer index, Top Glove added 2.32 points, while Axiata and Digi contributed 2.25 and 1.76 points respectively.
At 5pm, the benchmark FBM KLCI rose 12.97 points to 1,624.78 from Monday’s close of 1,611.81.
The market had opened 4.18 points higher at 1615.99, and moved between 1,612.29 and 1,625.22 during the day’s trading.
Market breadth was positive with gainers leading losers 634 to 551, while 459 counters were unchanged, 534 untraded and eight others suspended.
Total volume decreased to 8.12 billion units worth RM5.91 billion from yesterday’s 9.8 billion units worth RM6.28 billion.
Regionally, Hong Kong’s Hang Seng Index rose 0.81 per cent to 28,773.23, Japan’s Nikkei was 0.99 per cent higher at 29,027.94, Singapore’s Straits Times Index advanced 1.96 per cent to 3,072.88, while South Korea’s Kospi slipped 0.67 per cent to 2,976.12.
A dealer said Asian shares ended mixed today as the United States’ US$1.9 trillion (RM7.8 trillion) stimulus package was seen to be imminent, but the positive sentiment was tempered by concerns about inflation and the Covid-19 pandemic.
On the local front, Bursa Malaysia stayed in the positive territory throughout the day as bargain hunting continued with signs of positive foreign fund flows due to the attractive valuations.
Bank Islam Malaysia Bhd economist Adam Mohamed Rahim told Bernama the bourse’s performance was buoyed by rubber glove counters namely Kossan and Top Glove which gained by more than one per cent for the day.
“The strength in rubber glove counters came about as Top Glove released its second quarter result which achieved its highest ever quarterly sales revenue of RM5.37 billion, an increase of 336 per cent from RM1.23 billion in the same quarter last year.
“This was despite an eight per cent decline in volume due to a temporary production halt in its Klang facilities in November and December 2020,” he said.
Other supporting counters were telecommunication stocks which saw share prices of Maxis, Digi and Axiata gained by more than 2.0 per cent for the day, he added.
Among the heavyweights, Public Bank added two sen to RM4.42 and Tenaga gained 30 sen to RM10.70, Petronas Chemicals shed 15 sen to RM8.20, IHH Healthcare slid nine sen to RM5.20 while Maybank was flat at RM8.50.
Of the actives, Jadi Imaging improved one sen to 13.5 sen, AirAsia Group gained six sen to RM1.02 and Managepay Systems added three sen to 22 sen
Sealink reduced 4.5 sen to 24 sen while AirAsia X was flat at 9.5 sen.
On the index board, the FBM Emas Index rose 111.20 points to 11,834.97, the FBMT 100 Index expanded 110.81 points to 11,541.36, the FBM Emas Shariah Index surged 141.30 points to 13,022.72, the FBM 70 soared 220.78 points to 15,413.27 but the FBM ACE declined 36.31 points to 10,189.72.
Sector-wise, the Plantation Index increased 51.89 points to 7,167.68 and the Financial Services Index advanced 52.44 points to 15,742.44 while the Industrial Products and Services Index eased 0.18 of-a-point to 187.22.
Main Market volume fell to 5.88 billion shares worth RM5.35 billion from Monday’s 7.42 billion shares worth RM5.6 billion.
Warrants turnover increased to 646.05 million units worth RM101.54 million from 553.03 million units worth RM105.58 million yesterday.
Volume on the ACE Market fell to 1.6 billion shares worth RM458.49 million from 1.83 billion shares worth RM571.06 million previously.
Consumer products and services accounted for 1.54 billion shares traded on the Main Market, industrial products and services (1.1 billion), construction (308.96 million), technology (952.11 million), SPAC (nil), financial services (153.98 million), property (518.22 million), plantations (29.61 million), REITs (14.83 million), closed/fund (20,000), energy (536.30 million), healthcare (85.94 million), telecommunications and media (73.76 million), transportation and logistics (529.19 million) and utilities (42.95 million). — Bernama
