Higher close on buying interest

KUALA LUMPUR: The key market barometer of Bursa Malaysia, the FBM KLCI managed to post a handsome gain amidst losses in other Asian equities.

At 5pm, the 30-stock index closed 19.72 point higher at 1,670.28 after hitting an intra-day high of 1,672.21.  The local bourse opened 5.24 points lower at 1,645.32 this morning. 

On the broader market, gainers thumped losers 439 to 356, while 344 counters were unchanged. Turnover stood at 1.75 billion shares worth RM1.88bil.

Dealers said a rush of buying in the afternoon session on Friday to take advantage of the market’s oversold position that had resulted from the recent falls helped to pushed the index higher. 

However, they said the buying not heavy given the uncertainties that continued to cloud global equity markets and the fact that many investors were away for the year-end festivities.

Asian markets were hit by the potential U.S. government shutdown and of further hikes in U.S. borrowing costs raised concerns about the economic outlook. 

The benchmark Nikkei 225 lost 1.1% to 20,166.19, after shedding a hefty 2.8% the day before. Reuters reported that the index was heading for its worst quarter since the 2008 global financial crisis, with a loss of 16.4% so far.

In China, the blue-chip CSI300 index slid 1.9% to hit its lowest since March 2016 before ending down 1.2 percent at 3,029.40 point, while the Shanghai Composite Index declined 0.8% to 2,516.25 points.

Hong Kong’s Hang Seng index was down 241.86 points or 0.94% at 25,623.53 while South Korean’s Kospi was up 1.37 points or 0.07% at 2,061.49.

Meanwhile, the ringgit weakened against the US dollar. The ringgit was quoted at 4.1798 against the US dollar at 5pm. The local unit fell 0.04% to 5.2970 against the pound sterling, shed 0.12% to the Euro at 4.7842 and fell 0.03% to the Singapore dollar at 3.0530.

On Bursa Malaysia, United Plantations topped the gainers’ list, adding 68 sen to RM26.28. Tenaga Nasional jumped 66 sen to RM13.48, pushing the index up by 6.658 points. Nestle and Petronas Dagangan rose 60 sen each to RM147.60 and RM26 respectively. 

Losers included British American Tobacco, shedding RM1.68 to RM35.30, Ayer fell 40 sen to RM4.60 and Carlsberg lost 30 sen to RM19.68.

Among the banks, Maybank shed one sen to RM9.29, Public Bank rose two sen to RM24.68, CIMB closed unchanged at RM5.65 while Hong Leong Bank shed 20 sen to RM20.10.