KUALA LUMPUR, Jan 4 ― Bursa Malaysia reversed yesterday’s downtrend to open slightly higher today, thanks to mild buying support in the heavyweights, dealers said.
At 9.05am, the benchmark FTSE Bursa Malaysia KLCI (FBM KLCI) added 0.07 of-a-point to 1,549.12 compared with 1,549.05 at yesterday’s close.
The index opened 1.87 points firmer at 1,550.92.
Market breadth was positive with gainers thumping losers 156 to 114, while 225 counters were unchanged, 1,778 untraded and 15 others suspended.
Turnover stood at 141.98 million units valued at RM63.14 million.
Malacca Securities Sdn Bhd said market sentiment might turn positive, tracking the overnight solid performance on Wall Street, as well as the IHS Markit Manufacturing Purchasing Managers’ Index (PMI), which increased to 52.8 in December 2021 from 52.3 in November, suggesting that condition is improving in the manufacturing sector.
Nevertheless, investors should continue to monitor the global inflation, interest rate and any unpredicted risk arising from Covid-19 variants.
“We expect the overnight gains in Nasdaq may spillover to technology stocks on the local front.
“Besides, traders could focus on the oil and gas (O&G) and plantation stocks amid firmer crude palm oil (CPO) and crude oil prices,” it said in a note today.
The CPO price rose above RM4,800, while the crude oil price is hovering above US$78 per barrel mark.
Of heavyweights, Maybank slipped one sen to RM8.32, Public Bank trimmed two sen to RM4.13, CIMB eased three sen to RM5.46, while IHH Healthcare and Tenaga were flat at RM6.87 and RM9.23, respectively.
Petronas Chemicals, however, rose seven sen to RM8.83.
Of the actives, Bintai and SMTrack bagged 1.5 sen each to 24.5 sen and 25 sen, respectively, SC Estate added one sen to 8.5 sen, Dagang Nexchange inched up half-a-sen to 81.5 sen, while Opcom picked up two sen to RM1.01.
On the index board, the FBM Emas Index was 7.84 points higher at 11,230.23, the FBM Emas Shariah Index increased 17.02 points to 12,113.36, the FBM 70 rose 38.53 points to 14,264.38, and the FBMT 100 Index improved 7.21 points to 10,925.02.
However, the FBM ACE shed 0.23 of-a-point to 6,545.04.
Sector-wise, the Industrial Products and Services Index perked 0.76 of-a-point to 202.15, while the Financial Services Index went down 6.67 points to 15,607.4, and the Plantation Index slipped 0.14 of-a-point to 6,660.24. ― Bernama
