[UPDATED] Local bourse upbeat after extended weekend break

KUALA LUMPUR – Bursa Malaysia opened higher after the extended weekend break, in line with its Asian peers, lifted by buying momentum in key heavyweights, mainly in the financial services, healthcare and utilities sectors.

At 9.02am, the benchmark FTSE Bursa Malaysia KLCI (FBM KLCI) rose 10.53 points to 1,576.93 from 1,566.40 at Friday’s close.

The index opened 8.63 points higher at 1,575.03.

On the broader market, gainers led losers 265 to 151, while 370 counters were unchanged, 1,334 untraded and 12 others suspended.

Total volume stood at 315.43 million units worth RM169.56 million.

The market was closed yesterday for Federal Territory Day.

The US stock markets yesterday marched higher as the Dow gained 0.8% after the focus shifted to the upcoming barrage of corporate earnings from corporate giants such as Amazon and Alphabet.

Besides the US market, the European and Asian share markets also closed on a positive note yesterday.

Malacca Securities, in a note, said tracking the regional and Wall Street gains overnight, market players could be factoring in a conditional movement control order (CMCO) instead of a strict MCO (albeit in a rising Covid-19 cases environment) moving forward to avoid further breakdowns in the economy.

“Thus, we may anticipate a mild rebound moving forward. However, the rebound may attract profit-taking activities as Malaysia’s Covid-19 status has not flattened out at this current juncture.

“We might observe some trading interest within the healthcare and vaccine-related sectors in the near term,” it said.

On sector focus, the brokerage firm noted that glove-related counters may continue to be on investors’ radars amid rising Covid-19 cases along with the upcoming reporting season.

Meanwhile, the arrival of vaccine in Malaysia should trigger some trading interest within vaccine and transport and logistics companies.

Besides, the plantation counters may see some rebound following the increase in crude palm oil price.

Among the heavyweights, Maybank gained 13 sen to RM7.94, Top Glove increased 15 sen to RM6.89, Petronas Chemicals rose eight sen to RM6.79, and Petronas Gas was 28 sen higher at RM16.32.

Of the actives, Iris Corp added 1.5 sen to 45 sen, BIMB improved two sen to 25 sen, Metronic added half-a-sen to 105 sen, while GPA was 2.5 sen lower at 85 sen.

On the index board, the FBM Emas Index surged 62.26 points to 11,426.07, the FBMT 100 Index jumped 64.52 points to 11,169.45, and the FBM Emas Shariah Index was 75.51 points higher at 12,946.37.

The FBM 70 increased 46.45 points to 14,793.79, while the FBM ACE declined 143.82 points to 10,889.12.

Sector-wise, the Financial Services Index gained 72.05 points to 14,536.11, the Plantation Index inched up 8.90 points to 7,106.79, and the Industrial Products and Services Index edged up 0.47 of a point to 169.66. – Bernama, February 2, 2021