KUALA LUMPUR, June 2 — Bursa Malaysia extended yesterday’s modest gains to end higher today influenced by bullish external factors with crude oil closing at its highest level since October 2018 and economies crawling out of the pandemic.
At the same time, investors are eyeing the US payrolls data to be released on Friday for a better view on the current labour market situation—providing clues for the Federal Reserve.
Asian shares meanwhile are mixed.
Japan’s Nikkei 225 rose 0.46 per cent to 28,946.14, Hong Kong’s Hang Seng slipped 0.58 per cent to 29,297.62 and China’s SSE Composite was down 0.76 per cent to 3,597.14.
At 5 pm, the benchmark FTSE Bursa Malaysia KLCI (FBM KLCI) surged 12.04 points or 0.76 per cent to finish at 1,597.94 versus 1,585.90 at Tuesday’s close.
The index today slightly breached the earlier target set by Rakuten Trade which expected it to trend within the 1,585- 1,595 range today.
The FBM KLCI opened 0.43 points lower at 1,585.47 and moved between 1,585.47 and 1,598.61 throughout the day.
Buying support for stocks across the board boosted market breadth with gainers thumping losers 711 to 362, while 431 counters were unchanged, 630 untraded, and 11 others suspended.
Buying momentum was however slightly lower at 7.44 billion units worth RM4.01 billion compared with 8.98 billion units worth RM5.13 billion recorded at Tuesday’s close.
Bank Islam Malaysia Bhd economist Adam Mohamed Rahim said the FBM KLCI gained 0.80 per cent today to reach 1597.94 points, and out of the 30 index members, only three recorded losses while gainers were led by RHB Bank which advanced by 3.0 per cent amid news that the banking group has teamed up with Axiata to apply for a digital bank licence.
“As for the sectoral indices, all indices were green today amid a firmer Brent crude oil price following agreement reached by the Organisation of the Petroleum Exporting Countries (OPEC) and non-OPEC partners to gradually ease production cuts amid the expected higher crude oil demand.
“Further aiding the sentiment was the US manufacturing activity which rose in May, as pent-up demand boosted orders, combined with encouraging factory data in China, which could cushion Malaysia’s domestic demand in light of the full-scale lockdown,” he told Bernama.
Adam said trading participation amongst retail investors remained strong too as reflected in the FBM Small Cap Index which jumped by 1.4 per cent today, amid the overall positive vibe which coincided with the second day of the full-scale lockdown whereby the retail investors tended to be more active.
Among the 30 FBM KLCI counters, Maybank rose four sen to RM8.24, Public Bank added three sen to RM4.24, PChem improved two sen to RM8.07, and Tenaga was one sen higher at RM9.95.
F&N emerged the top gainer, rising RM1.18 to RM27.38, Time DotCom surged 52 sen to RM14.40, and Panasonic perked up 50 sen to RM33.
Among the actives, Joe Holding inched up half-a-sen to 4.5 sen, Serba Dinamik fell one sen to 82.5 sen, and Focus Dynamics was flat at five sen.
On the index board, the FBM Emas Index increased 110.96 points to 11,626.87, the FBMT 100 Index expanded 104.64 points to 11,322.76, and the FBM ACE improved 77.78 points to 7,794.93.
The FBM Emas Shariah Index rose 104.39 points to 12,857.07 and the FBM 70 shot up 213.91 points to 15,013.88.
Sector-wise, the Financial Services Index advanced 164.50 points to 15,249.40, the Industrial Products and Services Inched up 2.29 points to 193.54 and the Plantation Index gained 20.47 points to 6,852.40.
Main Market volume dwindled to 4.90 billion shares worth RM3.33 billion from 6.24 billion shares worth RM4.36 billion recorded at yesterday’s close.
Warrants turnover shrank to 300.06 million units valued at RM27.63 million from 489.99 million units valued at RM38.74 million.
Volume on the ACE Market fell to 2.23 billion shares worth RM739.76 million versus 2.41 billion shares worth RM728.25 million previously.
Consumer products and services accounted for 728.86 million shares traded on the Main Market, industrial products and services (1.61 billion), construction (163.41 million), technology (581.95 million), SPAC (nil), financial services (91.81 million), property (553.27 million), plantation (28.82 million), REITs (17.60 million), closed/fund (3,700), energy (817.71 billion), healthcare (78.22 million), telecommunications and media (65.71 million), transportation and logistics (136.58 million), and utilities (25.30 million). — Bernama
