KUALA LUMPUR – Bursa Malaysia managed to reverse earlier losses to end on a positive tone, thanks to bargain hunting in selected heavyweights led by healthcare, consumer products and services, transportation, and plantation linked counters.
However, on the broader market, losers overwhelmed gainers 614 to 460 while 451 counters were unchanged, 641 untraded and 21 others suspended.
At the close, the FTSE Bursa Malaysia KLCI (FBM KLCI) rose 6.40 points to 1,498.80 from yesterday’s close of 1,492.40.
The index opened at 1,492.95 and subsequently moved between 1,485.77 and 1,500.05 throughout the day.
Total volume fell to 6.73 billion units worth RM4.6 billion from 8.47 billion units worth RM5.94 billion recorded at Wednesday's close.
Of the benchmark index's 30 constituent stocks, 18 were higher led by IHH which added 23 sen RM5.19, Nestle jumped RM5.10 to RM144.50 and MISC rose 21 sen to RM6.61.
Three counters were flat – Hong Leong, CIMB Group and Genting, while nine were lower.
Among the indices, three sectors recorded more than 1.0% gain, namely transportation and logistics, FBM ACE and technology.
The plantation sector index rose just slightly below that 1.0% mark (0.87%), lifted by the announcement made by the Plantation Industries and Commodities Ministry that forced labour would no longer be an issue in the country come Jan 1, 2021.
This is due to the implementation of various measures by the government to address the problem, including through the establishment of the mandatory Malaysian Sustainable Palm Oil Certification.
Minister Datuk Dr Mohd Khairuddin Aman Razali today said the MSPO, among others, required all industry players to comply with the condition of not using forced labour to obtain the certification.
FGV, which was slammed by the US Customs and Border Protection (CBP) pertaining to the matter in September, saw its shares up by two sen to RM1.10 today.
The plantation company was issued a withhold release order by the CBP against its palm oil and palm oil products.
Separately, the Statistics Department expects the country’s economy to continue its recovery trend based on the smoothed growth rate of leading index (LI), a predictive tool to anticipate upturns and downturns in the economy.
The LI in August rose to 108.5 points from 100.8 points in August 2019.
On the broader perspective, AxiCorp chief global market strategist Stephen Innes said with the coronavirus still raging around the world and the major macro (US presidential election) event of the year just weeks away, the markets will probably trend more volatile and put on a defensive mode.
“But it is not all about equities; there are lots of investments to trade.
“Still, stock market investors have enough cash to put to work, and things will bounce back in a big way. The short-term stimulus will unambiguously give way to post-election outcomes and optimism about fiscal spending potential in 2021,” he told Bernama.
Among heavyweights, Maybank lost nine sen to RM7.06, Public Bank declined 20 sen to RM15.56, Top Glove gained two sen to RM8.90, and Tenaga was six sen higher at RM10.08.
Of the gainers, Malaysia Pacific Industries jumped 52 sen to RM20.60, UWC rose 47 sen to RM6.80 while plantation-linked company Genting Plantations was 49 sen higher at RM10.28.
As for the actives, Lambo was flat at three sen, Diversified Gateway slipped 4.5 sen to 18.5 sen and Iris Corp was four sen better at 30.5 sen.
On the index board, the FBM Emas Index rose 48.77 points to 10,886.11, the FBMT 100 Index added 47.52 points to 10,677.52 and the FBM Emas Shariah Index climbed 102.64 points to 13,077.88.
The FBM 70 gained 71.47 points to 14,383.14 and the FBM ACE jumped 156.65 points to 10,951.20.
The Financial Services Index fell 98.83 points to 12,304.05, the Industrial Products and Services Index inched down 0.35 of-a-point to 144.81, the Plantation Index added 60.14 points to 6,920.45, and the Healthcare Index was 10.85 points better at 4,111.74.
The Main Market volume slid to 3.3 billion shares worth RM3.72 billion from 4.91 billion shares worth RM4.87 billion recorded on Wednesday.
Warrants turnover decreased to 887.73 million units valued at RM212.98 million compared with 1.14 billion units valued at RM276.92 million.
Volume on the ACE Market rose to 2.53 billion shares worth RM667.19 million versus 2.41 billion shares worth RM795.72 million.
Consumer products and services accounted for 639.64 million shares traded on the Main Market, industrial products and services (811.57 million), construction (127.98 million), technology (516.35 million), SPAC (nil), financial services (76.96 million), property (475.36 million), plantations (24.30 million), REITs (4.66 million), closed/fund (7,000), energy (159.53 million), healthcare (130.44 million), telecommunications and media (41.93 million), transportation and logistics (199.60 million), and utilities (95.13 million). – Bernama, October 22, 2020
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