KUALA LUMPUR – Bursa Malaysia opened flat today amid mixed regional markets with volatility on Wall Street continued to be dominated by the unfinalised stimulus package.
At 9.05am, the benchmark FTSE Bursa Malaysia KLCI (FBM KLCI) inched down 0.36 of-a-point to 1,498.44 from 1,498.80 at Thursday’s close.
The market barometer opened 0.96 of-a-point better at 1,499.76.
On the scoreboard, however, gainers led losers 237 to 148, while 286 counters were unchanged, 1,496 untraded and 21 others suspended.
Total volume stood at 256.69 million units worth RM147.53 million.
Rakuten Trade, in a note, said hopes for the stimuli has yo-yoed over the past few weeks with the latest update that an agreement should be finalised soon.
As such, the DJI Average added 153 points to inch towards the 28,400 level from the day’s low of around the 28,000 mark.
“We reckon regional markets to see slight improvements following a weak performance yesterday, while on the local front, we believe the FBM KLCI breaches the 1,500 level with 1,510 being the immediate resistance today, buoyed by glove counters on the back of the surging Covid-19 cases globally of late,” it said.
CGS-CIMB Futures Sdn Bhd said as the Klang Valley enters the second week of conditional movement control order (CMCO), retail investors are diving into the stock market and this is also due to the prevailing low interest rate, which is expected to see another cut in November.
“The four trading days this week up until yesterday recorded a volume of 35.75 billion, which was already 5.21% higher than last week’s volume of 33.98 billion,” it said.
Of the heavyweights, Maybank rose three sen to RM7.09, Hartalega increased 10 sen to RM17.90, Top Glove slipped six sen to RM8.84, and Tenaga was four sen lower at RM10.04.
The most active counters were led by Iris, which was flat at 30.5 sen, AirAsia X up one sen to 4.5 sen, Datasonic warrants inched up half-a-sen to 26.5 sen and Excel Force was three sen higher at 50 sen.
Top gainers included Vitrox Corp, which increased 34 sen to RM14.28, British American jumped 17 sen to RM9.97 and JF Technology was 12 sen higher at RM4.69.
Top losers were Nestle, PPB Group and Malaysian Pacific which lost RM1.80, 32 sen and 30 sen to RM142.70, RM18.78 and RM20.30, respectively.
On the index board, the FBM Emas Index rose 10.62 points to 10,896.73, the FBMT 100 Index improved 9.58 points to 10,687.10 and the FBM Emas Shariah Index added 3.28 points to 13,081.16.
The FBM 70 advanced 59.99 points to 14,443.13 and the FBM ACE soared 158.63 points to 11,109.83.
The Financial Services Index appreciated 33.19 points to 12,337.24, the Industrial Products and Services Index edged up 0.11 point to 144.92 and the Plantation Index was 3.97 points higher at 6,924.42. – Bernama, October 23, 2020
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