KUALA LUMPUR, May 19 — Bursa Malaysia closed marginally higher today, as last-minute bargain-hunting activities emerged amid mixed market sentiment.
At 5pm, the FTSE Bursa Malaysia KLCI (FBM KLCI) added 0.5 of-a-point to end the day at an intraday high of 1,428.54 compared with 1,428.04 at Thursday's close.
The barometer index, which opened 2.59 points weaker at 1,425.45, fell to as low as 1,423.65 during the day.
On the broader market, decliners outnumbered gainers 457 to 360, while 432 counters were unchanged, 998 untraded and 14 others suspended.
Turnover increased to 2.85 billion units worth RM1.81 billion from 2.65 billion units worth RM1.82 billion on Thursday.
Rakuten Trade Sdn Bhd equity research vice-president Thong Pak Leng said the FBM KLCI reversed its losses and closed narrowly higher as bargain-hunting activities emerged during the final minutes of the trading day.
On the domestic front, he expects the local market’s uptrend would continue, supported by improved market sentiments, adding that valuations on Malaysian equities are still cheaper compared with regional peers, hence offering better potential upsides for foreign investors.
"However, investors will continue to remain alert with regard to the increasing market volatility and uncertainties.
"Additionally, we believe some investors will shift their attention to corporate earnings in the heat of the results season from next week onwards,” he told Bernama.
Regionally, Thong said key indices ended mostly higher following the positive cue from Wall Street overnight, amid growing optimism that the United States (US) policymakers were close to reaching a deal to raise the US debt ceiling and avoid a default.
Among the heavyweights, Maybank picked up two sen to RM8.78, Public Bank and CIMB added one sen each to RM3.98 and RM5.02, respectively, and Tenaga Nasional earned three sen to RM9.82, while Petronas Chemicals shed 1.5 sen to RM6.86.
Main Market debutant DXN Holdings was the most actively traded stock, slipping by 3.5 sen to 66.5 sen from its initial public offering price of 70 sen.
As for the other active counters, Metronic was flat at 1.5 sen, YTL Corporation rose 3.5 sen to 77.5 sen, Bahvest added two sen to 14 sen, and Top Glove bagged three sen to RM1.20.
Meanwhile, the short selling of Berjaya Food’s shares has been suspended for the rest of the day after its last done price dropped by more than 15 sen or 15 per cent from the reference price.
In a filing today, Bursa Malaysia Securities said the short selling of the shares under the proprietary day trading (PDT) and intraday short selling (IDSS) would only be reactivated on Monday, May 22 at 8.30 am.
Berjaya Food was last traded at 65 sen, down 17.5 sen or 21.21 per cent, with 85.1 million shares traded.
On the index board, the FBM Emas Index shed 7.02 points to 10,474.75, the FBMT 100 Index slid 4.52 points to 10,170.36, the FBM Emas Shariah Index declined 23.99 points to 10,829.51, and the FBM 70 Index went down 39.78 points to 13,645.75.
However, the FBM ACE Index rose 13.78 points to 5,002.9.
Sector-wise, the Industrial Products and Services Index slipped 1.01 points to 164.99, the Plantation Index lost 32.45 points to 7,026.55, and the Energy Index eased 5.51 points to 839.53.
The Financial Services Index, however, increased 37.29 points to 15,606.23.
The Main Market volume expanded to 1.83 billion units valued at RM1.6 billion from 1.74 billion units valued at RM1.61 billion on Thursday.
Warrants turnover decreased to 368.4 million units worth RM50.59 million against 382.56 million units worth RM55.23 million yesterday.
The ACE Market volume improved to 641.33 million shares valued at RM152.51 million versus 526.20 million shares valued at RM152.09 million previously.
Consumer products and services counters accounted for 545.11 million shares traded on the Main Market, industrial products and services (392.4 million); construction (92.09 million); technology (116.25 million); SPAC (nil); financial services (39.29 million); property (186.6 million); plantation (27.47 million); REITs (7.25 million), closed/fund (14,000); energy (107.89 million); healthcare (164.97 million); telecommunications and media (28.99 million); transportation and logistics (18.27 million); and utilities (108.14 million). — Bernama
