Bursa Malaysia higher in line with global equities recovery

KUALA LUMPUR, June 22 — Bursa Malaysia closed higher today, in tandem with the recovery in the global equities on the back of improved market sentiment, dealers said.

The benchmark FTSE Bursa Malaysia KLCI (FBM KLCI) rose 1.78 points to finish the day at 1,574.02 from Monday’s close of 1,572.24.

The market bellwether, which opened 0.68 of-a-point easier at 1,571.56 today, fluctuated between 1,571.21 and 1,577.57 throughout the day.

The overall market breadth was positive with gainers leading losers 528 to 481, while 468 counters were unchanged, 726 untraded and 12 others suspended.

Turnover decreased further to 5.9 billion units worth RM3.08 billion today, from 6.04 billion units valued at RM2.8 billion on Monday.

Bank Islam Malaysia Bhd economist Adam Mohamed Rahim said the FBM KLCI closed 0.11 per cent higher today with Digi leading gainers among the 30-index constituents with a 2.3 per cent advance as investors remained upbeat on the Celcom-Digi merger.

This made the Bursa Malaysia Telecommunication and Media index as the biggest gainer of 2.3 per cent, he said.

“Overall sentiment was also supported by the decline in daily COVID-19 cases in Malaysia, which dropped to 4,743 cases, while the number of vaccination doses administered on June 21 reached 235,623 doses.

“Investors also took the opportunity to do some bargain hunting after taking the cue from the Dow Jones Index which ended higher overnight as investors piled back in to the energy and other sectors, which were expected to outperform as the economy rebounds from the pandemic,” he told Bernama.

Among the heavyweights, Maybank and Public Bank bagged two sen each to RM8.20 and RM4.20 respectively, PetChem gained three sen to RM7.98, Tenaga earned four sen to RM10.04, CIMB added one sen to RM4.60 while IHH slipped one sen to RM5.75.

Of the actives, Serba Dinamik perked up 2.5 sen to 62.5 sen, both VSolar and Fintec were flat at 1.5 sen and 3.5 sen respectively, while MMAG shed two sen to 16 sen.

On the index board, the FBM Emas Index was 1.86 points higher at 11,474.62, the FBMT 100 Index gained 0.69 of-a-point to 11,168.0, and the FBM ACE advanced 63.88 points to 7,622.49.

The FBM Emas Shariah Index, however, contracted 18.52 points to 12,596.67, while the FBM 70 declined 46.24 points to 14,865.8.

Sector-wise, the Financial Services Index rose 41.79 points to 15,287.79, the Industrial Products and Services Index added 0.33 of-a-point to 189.45, while the Plantation Index lost 59.14 points to 6,538.18.

Main Market volume increased marginally to 3.55 billion shares worth RM2.52 billion from 3.24 billion shares worth RM2.28 billion on Monday.

Warrants turnover decreased to 277.17 million units valued at RM29.69 million from yesterday’s 318.46 million units valued at RM40.43 million.

Volume on the ACE Market dwindled to 2.08 billion shares valued at RM522.39 million from 2.48 billion shares worth RM477.21 million yesterday.

Consumer products and services accounted for 597.56 million shares traded on the Main Market, industrial products and services (1.04 billion), construction (115.71 million), technology (335.41 million), SPAC (nil), financial services (55.82 million), property (200 million), plantation (24.18 million), REITs (2.81 million), closed/fund (5,000), energy (891.93 million), healthcare (46.31 million), telecommunications and media (101.59 million), transportation and logistics (90.05 million) and utilities (45.66 million). — Bernama