KUALA LUMPUR, Aug 25 — Bursa Malaysia has extended its rally for the fourth consecutive day amidst strong investors’ appetite and better commodity prices.
At 9.05am, the benchmark FTSE Bursa Malaysia KLCI (FBM KLCI) increased 12.32 points to 1,565.69 from yesterday's close of 1,553.37.
The market bellwether opened 1.21 points higher at 1,554.58.
Market breadth remained positive with gainers surpassing decliners 256 to 130, while 312 counters were unchanged, 1,553 untraded and nine others suspended.
Turnover increased to 197.44 million shares worth RM129.59 million.
Malacca Securities Sdn Bhd said while the market may anticipate some potential pullback due to profit-taking activities, it believes that the positive sentiment on the local bourse should continue to be supported by the broad-based recovery tunes amidst the rising commodity prices.
Additionally, the market is likely to be supported by the smooth domestic vaccination progress and noted that investors also seem to be optimistic about the ongoing reporting season, it said in a research note today.
It said the Baltic Exchange’s main sea freight index (Baltic Dry Index) rose to above 4,200 points yesterday — its highest point since mid-2010, and the Brent crude oil price rebounded to close above the US$71 level — both factors that may support the oil and gas as well as the transportation and logistics counters.
“Investors should remain bullish on the technology sector following the extended overnight gains in Nasdaq.
“Additionally, we believe the recovery theme sectors such as building material and construction sectors should continue to gain traction,” it said.
Banking heavyweights Public Bank advanced four sen to RM4.15, Maybank added six sen to RM8.38 and CIMB was five sen higher at RM4.88.
Press Metal jumped 20 sen to RM5.20, IOI gained 10 sen to RM3.99, and Sime Darby Plantation inched up six sen to RM4.22.
Among the actives, MMAG, AE Multi and Ta Win were flat at 11.5 sen, 4.5 sen and 16.5 sen, respectively, while Aimflex dropped one sen to 17.5 sen.
On the index board, the FBM Emas Index rose 70.91 points to 11,436.26, the FBMT 100 Index bagged 70.89 points to 11,142.07, the FBM Emas Shariah Index gained 72.47 points to 12,493.81, the FBM 70 was 29.69 points higher at 14,961.09, and the FBM ACE went up 36.94 points to 7,364.43.
Sector-wise, the Plantation Index firmed 83.81 points to 6,698.65, the Financial Services Index climbed 110.65 points to 15,447.08, and the Industrial Products and Services Index edged up 1.84 points to 193.21. — Bernama
