KUALA LUMPUR: Bursa Malaysia ended broadly higher at midday, with buying support across the board and in tandem with the positive performance of regional bourses.
The benchmark FBM KLCI rose 0.3%, or 5.24 points to 1,763.20 points. The index opened 0.42 of-a- point lower at 1,757.54 this morning.
Turnover was 2.048 billion shares valued at RM9.35bil. There were 481 gainers, 345 losers and 405 counters traded unchanged on the Bursa Malaysia.
PublicInvest Research said FBM KLCI’s fast paced weekly MACD remained bullish at this juncture.
“It is anticipated that the index would re-test its major resistance level of 1,762 this week, where heavier selling pressure could be seen. Unsuccessful attempt to penetrate this watershed level would lead to potential range-bound trading between resistance level of 1,762 and support level of 1,742 for the rest of the week,” it said.
The research house said any pullback above the horizon of 1,727 was deemed healthy in the event that the index is overwhelmed by profit-taking activities.
PublicInvest said the support levels for the index was at 1,742, 1,735 and 1,719, while the resistance levels are at 1,762, 1,783 and 1,793.
Overnight, the Dow Jones Industrial Average slipped 0.1% though the S&P 500 and Nasdaq Composite inched 0.2% and 0.3% higher respectively as earnings reports provided some support.
Leading the mover on the index was Hong Leong Bank, climbing 22 sen to RM18.66, pushing the index up by 0.7589 points. Sime Darby Plantation
gained seven sen to RM5.23, nudging the index up by 0.7579 while Digi.Com rose six sen to RM4.58, lifting the index up by 0.7423 points.
Among the banks, Maybank closed unchanged at RM9.81, Public Bank gained four sen to RM4 and CIMB Group added one sen to RM5.87.
Radiant Global Tech surged on its trading debut on the ACE Market. The counter jumped 29.5 sen to 52.5 sen with 153.49 million shares traded.
CN Asia Corp, which has received regulatory approval for its Practice Note 17 (PN17) status to be lifted, jumped 30 sen, or 62.22% to 79 sen.
Meanwhile, the ringgit depreciated 0.14% to 4.0677 against the US dollar.
OANDA Head of Trading in Asia-Pacific, Stephen Innes said it had been very quiet for ringgit -denominated bonds and currency markets.
“While the ringgit against the US dollar moved lower on US President Donald Trump’s verbal intervention, the greenback in general is picking up momentum in G-10 space and with commodities trading weaker, after the People’s bank of China’s induced euphoria.
“Emerging market currencies will trade with a weaker bias,” he added.
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