KUALA LUMPUR, Jan 27 — Bursa Malaysia rebounded to end marginally higher due to bargain-hunting activities during the final hour of trading, said an analyst.
At 5pm, the benchmark FTSE Bursa Malaysia KLCI (FBM KLCI) gained 0.02 per cent or 0.23 of-a-point to 1,515.99 from 1,515.76 at yesterday’s close.
The key index which opened 0.72 of-a-point higher at 1,516.48, moved between 1,510.64 and 1,518.61 during the trading session.
The overall market breadth was however negative with losers outpacing gainers 589 to 329, while 395 counters were unchanged, 947 untraded, and 31 others suspended.
Total turnover declined to 2.22 billion units valued at RM1.77 billion versus yesterday’s 2.36 billion units worth RM1.84 billion.
Rakuten Trade Sdn Bhd vice-president of equity research Thong Pak Leng said key regional indices meanwhile closed mostly lower as investors weighed the likelihood that the US Federal Reserve would raise interest rates in March.
Elsewhere, geopolitical tension surrounding Russia exerted additional downside pressure on equity markets globally.
“As for the local bourse, we reckon investor sentiment will remain soft for a short period due to the abovementioned factors, hence, we anticipate the index to trend around the 1,510-1,520 range towards the weekend,” he told Bernama.
Gainers were led by Kuala Lumpur Kepong which added 22 sen to RM21.72, Nestle which gained 20 sen to RM133.00 and Hartalega which rose 11 sen to RM5.60.
Among other heavyweights, Maybank was flat at RM8.30, Public Bank added one sen to RM4.21, Petronas Chemical fell two sen to RM8.90, IHH improved two sen to RM6.38 while CIMB eased one sen to RM5.25.
As for the most actives, DNeX was down 2.5 sen to 92 sen, Hibiscus Petroleum rose nine sen to 97 sen, and Dataprep Holdings was five sen higher at 61.5 sen.
On the index board, the FBM ACE slid 85.64 points to 5,998.37, FBM 70 slipped 85.04 points to 13,348.23, FBM Emas Index went down 16.01 points to 10,872.11, FBMT 100 Index erased 13.83 points to 10,583.00, and FBM Emas Shariah Index decreased 23.53 points to 11,546.66.
Sector-wise, the Financial Services Index gained 17.22 points to 15,764.11, the Industrial Products and Services Index eased 0.74 of-a-point to 199.55, while the Plantation Index increased 34.20 points to 6,632.18.
The Main Market volume increased to 1.44 billion shares worth RM1.54 billion versus Wednesday’s 1.35 billion shares valued at RM1.54 billion.
Warrants turnover narrowed to 277.33 million units valued at RM35.12 million from 368.75 million units worth RM34.80 million yesterday.
The ACE Market volume dwindled to 499.54 million shares worth RM202.41 million against 638.41 million shares valued at RM261.51 million yesterday.
Consumer products and services counters accounted for 195.56 million shares traded on the Main Market, industrial products and services (381.73 million), construction (71.32 million), technology (346.12 million), SPAC (nil), financial services (50.89 million), property (91.50 million), plantation (9.56 million), REITs (4.63 million), closed/fund (5,900), energy (216.31 million), healthcare (30.42 million), telecommunications and media (11.52 million), transportation and logistics (24.21 million), and utilities (9.01 million). — Bernama
