Finance stocks, external factors lift Bursa Malaysia higher

KUALA LUMPUR: Bursa Malaysia was bullish throughout yesterday’s session with the barometer index ending 0.38 per cent higher, driven by gains in most blue chip finance stocks and better sentiment domestically boosted by external factors, particularly the US midterm election results.

At 5pm, the benchmark FTSE Bursa Malaysia KLCI (FBM KLCI) was 6.54 points higher at 1,721.42, Wednesday’s close of 1,714.88.

The key index opened 11.08 points higher at 1,725.96 and moved between 1,718.47 and 1,726.10 throughout the day.

Market breadth was positive, with gainers outpacing losers 475 to 357, while 361 were unchanged, 660 untraded and 20 others suspended.

Volume was slightly lower at 2.28 billion units worth RM2.29 billion from 2.32 billion units worth RM2.5 billion.

A dealer said the key index restarted the week after the Deepavali public holiday on Tuesday on a stronger note taking cue from the positive regional performance.

“Another stellar performance in overnight US markets resulted from US mid-term elections has also helped the local market while the global equity markets are also on the uptrend,” he added.

Of the finance heavyweights, Maybank added four sen to RM9.32, PBBank edged up 10 sen to RM24.70, CIMB gained one sen to RM5.69 and HLBank was six sen higher at RM20.66.

Cumulatively, these counters contributed 1.89 points to the composite index.

Among other key index-linked counters were Tenaga, which rose 12 sen to RM14.94, PChem was f lat at RM9.70, Maxis gained 11 sen to RM5.51 while IHH lost one sen to RM4.99.

Active stocks, KGroup was up 1.5 sen to 7.5 sen, Permaju rose 2.5 sen to 34.5 sen, SapNRG lost one sen to 36 sen, while Seacera shed 2.5 sen to 25.5 sen.

The FBM Emas Shariah Index rose 58.92 points to 12,124.40 while the FBM Emas Index added 46.80 points to 11,940.82 and the FBM Ace Index was 28.12 points better at 5,012.78.

The FBMT 100 Index climbed 44.52 points to 11,780.68 and the FBM 70 was up 51.91 points to 13,960.91.

Sector-wise, the Plantation Index erased 2.13 points to 7,369.23, but the Industrial Products and Services Index was 0.53 of-a-point firmer at 175.20 while the Financial Services Index increased 65.56 points to 17,297.04.

Main Market volume declined to 1.53 billion units worth RM2.12 billion from 1.64 billion units worth RM2.34 billion registered on Wednesday. Warrants turnover slipped to 367.57 million units worth RM87 million from 380.09 million units valued at RM94.92 million.

Volume on the ACE Market was higher at 377.16 million shares worth RM82.12 million from 304.01 million shares worth RM61.03 million.

Consumer products and services accounted for 22.72 million shares traded on the Main Market, industrial products and services (374.8 million), construction (58.46 million), technology (240.64 million), SPAC (1.69 million), financial services (37.96 million), property (107.31 million), plantations (26.0 million), REITs (7.33 million), closed/fund (25,100), energy (281.25 million), healthcare (35.02 million), telecommunication and media (64.53 million), transportation and logistics (51.35 million), and utilities (23.71 million).

For further information on stocks and prices, please visit www. bursamalaysia.com.