KUALA LUMPUR – Bursa Malaysia opened higher this morning, with buying interest in selected heavyweights led by IHH Healthcare amid concerns over rising Covid-19 cases in the country, an analyst said.
At 9.05am, the benchmark FTSE Bursa Malaysia KLCI (FBM KLCI) improved 3.77 points to 1,519.76 from 1,515.99 at yesterday’s close, after opening 2.26 points higher at 1,518.25.
Market breadth was positive with gainers leading losers 142 to 105, while 205 counters were unchanged, 1,816 untraded and 73 others suspended.
Turnover stood at 788.48 million units worth RM40.11 million.
An analyst said the new Covid-19 infections in the country, which continued to show an upward trend for the third day in a row with over 5,000 cases reported yesterday, could have prompted buying support for healthcare stocks. The stock of IHH Healthcare increased 1.72% or 11 sen to RM6.49.
On the other hand, Rakuten Trade Sdn Bhd vice-president of equity research Thong Pak Leng said three major indices on Wall Street ended weaker as early gains were wiped out towards the closing and sellers took the opportunity to lock in profits on the uptrend.
“Broad market sentiments remain jittery and we expect such volatility to stay amid the US Federal Reserve’s imminent rate increase.
:As for the local bourse, we believe the index would be stuck within the 1,505-1.520 range today due to lack of strong catalysts,” he said.
On a separate development, the ringgit opened lower against the US dollar today on firmer buying support for the greenback, backed by better US economic and employment data, an analyst said.
At 9am, the local note fell to 4.1970/2000 versus the greenback from 4.1935/1980 at yesterday’s close.
In line with the positive data, Bank Islam Malaysia Bhd chief economist Mohd Afzanizam Abdul Rashid noted that the US Dollar Index also continued to march higher to 97.221 points.
“The final quarter US gross domestic product came in at 6.9% growth against consensus estimates of 5.5%. Similarly, the Initial Jobless Claims, a gauge for the labour market, is also flashing a good sign with readings at 260,000,” he said.
He added that the reading indicates that fewer Americans applied for the unemployment benefits last week compared to 286,000 the previous week.
Despite that, he believes the ringgit should be well supported at the current level, given that Brent crude price is currently at US$90 (RM377.77) per barrel.
“Such level suggests that the government would have means to maintain its expansionary fiscal policy which can be positive for economic growth,” he said.
As such, Mohd Afzanizam expects the domestic note versus the US dollar to hover around RM4.19-RM4.20.
Meanwhile, the ringgit was traded higher against a basket of other major currencies.
It increased against the Singapore dollar to 3.1015/1042 from 3.1040/1076 at yesterday’s close and advanced versus the euro at 4.6776/6809.
The domestic unit firmed against the British pound to 5.6202/6242 from 5.6306/6367 and rose vis-a-vis the Japanese yen to 3.6350/6376 from 3.6462/6501 previously. – Bernama, January 28, 2022
