Small cap stocks continue to lift Bursa Malaysia
KUALA LUMPUR: Bursa Malaysia finished strongly for the third consecutive day, spurred by buying in small capitalisation stocks and selected blue chips, thanks to the bullish market sentiment.
The benchmark FTSE Bursa Malaysia KLCI (FBM KLCI) rose 8.91 points to end at 1,869.89 from 1,860.98 previously, after moving in the positive territory of between 1,863.3 and 1,871.73 throughout the day.
Gains in CIMB, Astro and Maybank lifted the composite index by 7.461 points. The stocks firmed by 16 sen, 26 sen and 12 sen to RM7.20, RM2.04 and RM10.60 respectively.
The FTSE Bursa Malaysia Small Cap Index surged 211.56 8 points to 15,049.06.
The overall market breadth was bullish with gainers overwhelming losers 736 to 322, while 350 counters were unchanged, 474 untraded and 23 others suspended.
Volume soared to 4.65 billion units worth RM3.21 billion from 3.73 billion units valued at RM2.71 billion previously.
A dealer said the trade liberalisation announced by the Chinese President Xi Jinping had literally surprised the equities market globally and eased the US-China trade war tension.
On the local front, the dealer said the positive Industrial Production Index data, which expanded by 3.0 per cent year-onyear in February, also bolstered sentiment yesterday.
Among heavyweights, Petronas Chemicals rose six sen to RM8.51, Tenaga Nasional lost four sen to RM15.86 while Public Bank was flat at RM23.96.
Of the actively-traded stocks, Sapura Energy advanced 11 sen to 64.5 sen, UMW O&G gained two sen to 29.5 sen, and Borneo Oil inched up half-a-sen to eight sen.
The FBM Emas Index was 92.54 points higher at 13,138.09, FBMT 100 Index perked 85 points to 12,935.07 and the FBM Emas Shariah Index improved 65.57 points to 13,363.27.
The FBM 70 surged 183.59 points to 15,848.34 and the FBM Ace increased 51.92 points to 5,557.59.
Sector-wise, the Finance Index climbed 138.52 points to 18,239.02 and the Industrial Index added 5.34 points to 3,234.95.
The Plantation Index, however, fell 64.14 points to 8,036.85 amid news that the crude palm oil stockpile in the country had increased in March due to strong output.
Main Market volume expanded to 2.91 billion units worth RM2.96 billion from 2.35 billion units valued at RM2.49 billion on Tuesday.
Volume on the ACE Market swelled to 958.25 million shares worth RM162.22 million from yesterday’s 708.09 million shares valued at RM121.22 million.
Warrants’ volume improved to 778.79 million units worth RM84.58 million from 671.56 million units valued at RM92.64 million previously.
Consumer products accounted for 81.83 million shares traded on the Main Market, industrial products (775.07 million), construction (137.53 million), trade and services (1.55 billion), technology (93.49 million), infrastructure (9.52 million), SPAC (20.63 million), finance (75.55 million), hotels (12.79 million), properties (124.38 million), plantations (22.34 million), mining (128,500), REITs (10.95 million), and closed/fund (11,000).