KUALA LUMPUR, Dec 22 — Bursa Malaysia rebounded from yesterday’s losses to open higher today, driven by renewed buying support in selected heavyweights as investors took advantage of the cheaper prices, dealers said.
At 9.15am, the benchmark FTSE Bursa Malaysia KLCI (FBM KLCI) rose by 2.15 points to 1,494.74 from 1,492.59 on Tuesday.
The index opened 0.15 of-a-point higher at 1,492.74.
On the broader market, gainers led losers 216 to 113, while 208 counters were unchanged, 1,763 untraded and 15 others suspended.
Turnover stood at 341.47 million units valued at RM123.31 million.
In a research note today, Malacca Securities Sdn Bhd said window dressing activities may emerge in the near term, lifting the FBM KLCI at least above the key 1,500 level.
“We expect traders to move away from the healthcare sector for the near term and focus on recovery theme stocks within the gaming, hospitality and aviation sectors.
“Meanwhile, investors may pick up selected heavyweights on the back of the ongoing window dressing activities,” it said.
The FBM KLCI ended marginally lower yesterday as healthcare stocks succumbed to profit-taking activities.
However, it said the Wall Street was on an uptrend, brushing off concerns over the COVID-19 Omicron variant after the United States President Joe Biden said that people with booster shots are “highly protected”.
“This buying support is likely to spill over on the local front and could lift the bashed-down technology stocks as well as the recovery theme sectors,” it said.
Among the heavyweights, Maybank was flat at RM8.14, Public Bank went up 2.0 sen to RM4.10 and IHH Healthcare and CIMB both added 1.0 sen each to RM6.54 and RM5.34, respectively, while Petronas Chemicals slipped 3.0 sen to RM8.76.
Of the actives, ATA IMS improved 3.0 sen to 72 sen, SMTrack and Bintai Kinden earned half-a-sen each to 11 sen and 24.5 sen, respectively, while Swift Haulage rose 1.5 sen to 97.5 sen.
On the index board, the FBM Emas Index was 24.31 points higher at 10,859.73 and the FBMT 100 Index went up 24.08 points to 10,567.56, while the FBM Emas Shariah Index increased 23.98 points to 11,637.42.
The FBM 70 rose 70.30 points to 13,911.16 and the FBM ACE gained 20.81 points to 6,193.56.
Sector-wise, the Industrial Products and Services Index eased 0.19 of-a-point to 194.07, the Financial Services Index gained 15.94 points to 15,304.0, and the Plantation Index improved 4.80 points to 6,379.53. — Bernama
