KUALA LUMPUR – Bursa Malaysia continued its uptrend to close higher today, supported by persistent buying in select heavyweights due to optimism on the bullish economic outlook, dealers said.
At the close of trade, the benchmark FTSE Bursa Malaysia KLCI (FBM KLCI) rose 10.49 points to 1,610.15 after moving between 1,593.02 and 1,613.34 throughout the day.
On the broader market, losers edged past gainers 655 to 648, while 445 counters were unchanged, 416 untraded and 18 others suspended.
Total volume increased to 16.40 billion units worth RM7.96 billion from 16.10 billion units worth RM6.71 billion on Monday.
A dealer said that Asian stock markets were mixed on Tuesday’s trading, driven by the Wall Street’s overnight rally due to positive Covid-19 trial news from biotech group Moderna.
Although some analysts have warned that the rollout of any shot remained far in the future, he said that investors have begun to shift towards sectors that were hit by the pandemic due to the positive vaccine announcement.
Of the heavyweights, Maybank gained 16 sen to RM8.30, Public Bank jumped 42 sen to RM18.90, TNB rose 22 sen to RM11.42, while Top Glove dipped 20 sen to RM7 and Petronas Chemicals slipped 5.0 sen to RM6.65.
Of the actives, AT Systematization slipped 1.5 sen to 24.5 sen, Lambo eased half-a-sen to 4.0 sen, MTouche added one sen to 11.5 sen, while Trive Property was flat at 1.5 sen.
On the index board, the FBM Emas Index was 81.73 points better at 11,556.34, the FBMT 100 Index lifted 83.84 points to 11,346.82, the FBM Emas Shariah Index improved 28.31 points to 13,213.96, and the FBM 70 gained 146.32 points to 14,803.81.
The FBM ACE, however, lost 251.14 points to 11,319.25.
The Industrial Products and Services Index added 0.54 of-a-point to 157.74, the Plantation Index advanced 34.20 points to 7,311.60 and the Financial Services Index surged 311.81 points to 14,455.69.
The Main Market volume rose to 8.71 billion shares worth RM6.44 billion from 7.35 billion shares worth RM4.87 billion on Monday.
Warrants turnover increased to 1.41 billion units valued at RM223.38 million from 1.05 billion units valued at RM178.29 million yesterday.
Volume on the ACE Market narrowed to 6.28 billion shares worth RM1.30 billion compared with 7.70 billion shares worth RM1.69 billion previously.
Consumer products and services accounted for 1.24 billion shares traded on the Main Market, industrial products and services (2.35 billion), construction (235.69 million), technology (1.06 billion), SPAC (nil), financial services (201.06 million), property (892.64 million), plantations (118.93 million), REITs (18.90 million), closed/fund (21,600), energy (845.55 million), healthcare (331.06 million), telecommunications and media (44.96 million), transportation and logistics (1.24 billion), and utilities (127.87 million). – Bernama, November 17, 2020
