Bursa Malaysia ends higher on first day of full lockdown

KUALA LUMPUR, June 1 — Bursa Malaysia recovered to close higher today, with its benchmark index rebounding to the positive territory, thanks to gains in banking, healthcare, consumers products and services, and energy counters.

At 5pm, the benchmark FTSE Bursa Malaysia KLCI (FBM KLCI) gained 2.35 points to close at 1,585.90 versus 1,583.55 at Monday’s close.

The index opened 2.19 points higher at 1,585.74 and moved between 1,580.10 and 1,588.30 throughout the day.

Buying support for stocks across the board boosted market breadth with gainers thumping losers 587 to 524, while 392 counters were unchanged, 630 untraded, and nine others suspended.

Buying momentum was bullish with total volume increasing to 8.98 billion units worth RM5.13 billion from 6.42 billion units worth RM3.48 billion recorded at Monday’s close.

Today marked the first day of total lockdown in Malaysia with all economic and social sectors to shut down during the two-week phase one lockdown except for essential ones.

In assisting those affected by the economic shut down especially the B40 group, the government unveiled a RM40 billion package (at 9 pm on Monday), including a new targeted loan moratorium and cash handouts, to cushion the economic impact of the total lockdown amid the worsening Covid-19 pandemic.

On that note, AmInvestment Research, which maintained its end-2021 FBM KLCI target of 1,695 points based on 16 times 2021 full year earnings projection (+53.4 per cent), said the recovery-focused investment theme from end-2020 will extend well into 2021.

“Investors will continue to accumulate recovery plays, fundamentally strong names in the banking, power, oil and gas, consumer, real estate investment trust, and transport sectors, while lightening their positions in pandemic plays, in glove makers, and selected excessively-priced technology names,” it said in a note today.

Nevertheless, it said corporate Malaysia lost a bit of steam in the first quarter of 2021 versus the fourth quarter 2020.

Corporate earnings recovery hit a speed bump with the resurgence in Covid-19 infections locally and regionally.

Health director-general Tan Sri Dr Noor Hisham Abdullah tweeted today that Malaysia reported 7,105 new Covid-19 cases over the past 24 hours, bringing the total number of cases in the country to-date to 579,462.

Among the 30 FBM KLCI counters, Maybank rose two sen to RM8.20, Public Bank and PChem were both flat at RM4.21 and RM8.05 respectively while Tenaga was one sen lower at RM9.94.

BAT emerged the top loser, erasing RM1 to RM14.76, Pharmaniaga gave up 83 sen to RM5.74, and Sedania Innovator was 41 sen weaker at 97 sen.

Meanwhile, among the actives, Focus Dynamics added half-a-sen to 50 sen, Dagang NeXchange improved 3.5 sen to 80.5 sen, Ucrest was 1.5 sen lower at 42 sen, while Serba Dinamik fell 29.5 sen to 83.5 sen.

On the index board, the FBM Emas Index rose 20.10 points to 11,515.91, the FBMT 100 Index added 19.53 points to 11,218.12, and the FBM ACE improved 35.89 points to 7,717.15.

The FBM Emas Shariah Index fell 20.23 points to 12,752.68 and the FBM 70 dipped 37.07 points to 14,799.97.

Sector-wise, the Financial Services Index advanced 75.10 points to 15,084.90, the Industrial Products and Services Inched up 0.39 of-a-point to 191.25, but the Plantation Index shed 50.47 points to 6,831.93.

Main Market volume swelled to 6.24 billion shares worth RM4.36 billion from 3.78 billion shares worth RM2.7 billion recorded on Monday.

Warrants turnover rose to 489.99 million units valued at RM38.74 million versus 241.62 million units valued at RM22.19 million.

Volume on the ACE Market improved to 2.41 billion shares worth RM728.25 million compared with 2.38 billion shares worth RM755.76 million.

Consumer products and services accounted for 645.14 million shares traded on the Main Market, industrial products and services (1.28 billion), construction (184.75 million), technology (682.09 million), SPAC (nil), financial services (59.61 million), property (229.44 million), plantation (22.42 million), REITs (6.55 million), closed/fund (5,000), energy (2.84 billion), healthcare (111.78 million), telecommunications and media (79.29 million), transportation and logistics (91.41 million), and utilities (15.60 million). — Bernama