Bursa Malaysia rebounds to end marginally higher on late buying

KUALA LUMPUR, May 28 — Bursa Malaysia rebounded to close marginally higher for the fourth consecutive day this week, lifted by last-minute buying in index-linked banking counters.

At 5pm, the benchmark FTSE Bursa Malaysia KLCI (FBM KLCI) reversed early losses and eked out a small gain of 0.54 of-a-point to close at 1,594.44 versus 1,593.90 at yesterday’s close.

The index opened 8.73 points lower at 1,585.17 and moved between 1,580.78 and 1,594.62 throughout the day.

Market breadth, however, remained negative with losers outnumbering gainers 577 to 472, while 442 counters were unchanged, 697 untraded and 73 others suspended.

On the broader market, buying momentum was strong with total volume increasing to 8.82 billion units worth RM4.19 billion from 8.61 billion units worth RM7.33 billion yesterday.

Areca Capital Sdn Bhd chief executive officer Danny Wong said investors rotated back into index-linked bank stocks during the afternoon session, hence the buying momentum successfully reversed the decline seen in the morning session.

“The gains in index-linked financial services stocks are enough to recover losses in the early session,” he told Bernama.

Meanwhile, Rakuten Trade Sdn Bhd head of equity sales Vincent Lau reckoned that the key index would have breached the 1,600-level if market sentiment was not dented by the rising Covid-19 cases.

“Although the government has reassured that there won’t be a total lockdown due to the rising cases, rumours are rife that there might be another full lockdown if the infection rates keep on increasing,” he said.

Nevertheless, Lau said the improved vaccination rates in the country had mitigated the lockdown fears among the investors, hence, narrowing the gap between the number of decliners and advancers on the local bourse.

Health director-general Tan Sri Dr Noor Hisham Abdullah tweeted today that Malaysia reported a record high of 8,290 new Covid-19 cases over the past 24 hours, bringing the total number of cases in the country to date to 549,514.

Among the 30 FBM KLCI counters, Maybank garnered 26 sen to RM8.20, CIMB rose 13 sen to RM4.35, RHB Bank climbed 22 sen to RM5.37, Hong Leong Bank was 34 sen firmer at RM18.60, and Telekom gained 30 sen to RM6.20.

Hong Leong Bank, Maybank, RHB Bank, and Telekom were also among the top gainers on the bourse.

Other top advancers included F&N which leapt 52 sen to RM26.88 and Kumpulan Jetson which increased 30 sen to 58.5 sen.

Of the actives, Kanger International edged down 1.5 sen to 8.5 sen, Focus Dynamics eased half-a-sen to five sen, Systech surged 11.5 sen to 34.5 sen, Sanichi warrant added one sen to 1.5 sen, and Sersol was four sen firmer at 31.5 sen.

On the index board, the FBM Emas Index slipped 20.03 points to 11,578.50 and the FBMT 100 Index trimmed 13.14 points to 11,276.60.

The FBM Emas Shariah Index dwindled 44.79 points to 12,847.04, the FBM 70 dipped 83.25 points to 14,869.65, and the FBM ACE gave up 93.59 points to 7,843.88.

Sector-wise, the Financial Services Index rose 34.63 points to 15,167.13 while the Plantation Index declined 56.17 points to 6,908.46, and the Industrial Products and Services Index inched down 1.30 points to 193.09.

Main Market volume narrowed to 4.14 billion shares worth RM3.01 billion against 5.23 billion shares worth RM6.37 billion yesterday.

Warrants turnover shrank to 175.99 million units valued at RM17.75 million compared with 260.49 million units valued at RM29.71 million yesterday.

Volume on the ACE Market swelled to 4.49 billion shares worth RM1.15 billion versus 3.11 billion shares worth RM930.06 million previously.

Consumer products and services accounted for 544.42 million shares traded on the Main Market, industrial products and services (1.59 billion), construction (114.90 million), technology (604.74 million), SPAC (nil), financial services (103.19 million), property (632.77 million), plantation (34.86 million), REITs (5.63 million), closed/fund (6,100), energy (157.43 million), healthcare (66.25 million), telecommunications and media (211.15 million), transportation and logistics (55.45 million), and utilities (20.85 million). — Bernama