Bursa Malaysia ended its first trading day on Monday after Pakatan Harapan's stunning victory in the 14th General Election on a steady note.
KUALA LUMPUR: Bursa Malaysia ended its first trading day on Monday -- after Pakatan Harapan's stunning victory in the 14th General Election -- on a steady note as trading volume surged but the FBM KLCI closed off its day's best.
The KLCI swung 75 points, falling to a low of 1,800 in early trade in a knee-jerk reaction before fund buying saw the 30-stock index surging to 1,875 in late afternoon trade.
At 5pm, some late selling saw the KLCI ending up just 3.91 points or 0.21% to 1,850.42 as investors sought more assurance about how the new federal government administration would put in place its proposals.
Turnover surged to 6.58 billion shares valued at RM7.31bil. The broader market was firm with 930 gainers, 405 losers and 180 counters unchanged.
The ringgit was up 0.02% to 3.9490.
Public Bank jumped 92 sen to RM24.80 and powered the KLCI up 6.41 points while Maybank added 10 sen to RM10.80 and nudged the KLCI up RM10.80 and RHB Bank gained three sen to RM5.30 but Hong Leong Bank lost 12 sen to RM18.50 and AmBank slid 27 sen to RM3.45.
CIMB fell 35 sen to RM6.55 and wiped out 5.89 points from the KLCI. It earlier fell to a low of RM6 in a knee jerk selldown due to its relatively high foreign shareholding of 27% and misperception of its links.
UOB Kay Hian Malaysia Research said CIMB remained its top pick for the sector as valuations is relatively compelling at 1.20 times 2018 price-to-book value vs sector's 1.55 times despite having a similar return on equity profile with the sector at 10.6%.
Construction stocks and counters seemed to be linked to the previous administration came under selling pressure. Construction companies were affected on reports that Pakatan Harapan would review the large scale infrastructure stocks.
George Kent hit limit down, skidding RM1.18 to RM2.76 while Gamuda lost 89 sen to RM4.21, CMSB 50 sen lower at RM3.55, Gabungan AQRS lost 48 sen to RM1.12, WCT and IJM 38 sen lower 90 sen and RM2.27. MRCB fell 21.5 sen to 78.5 sen with 138 million shares traded.
My EG hit limit-down also, tumbling 77 sen to RM1.81.
Litrak lost 55 sen to RM5.10 on expectations the new government woud abolish tolled roads.
Nestle rose the most, up RM5.70 to RM141.30, BAT added RM5.68 to RM28.38, Heineken added RM2.32 to RM22.50 while Carlsberg added RM1.32 to RM19.48 and F&N RM1.20 to RM35.70.
Eden jumped 29 sen to 46 sen in active trade, Berjaya Corp
gained 8.5 sen to 39 sen and FGV was up 18 sen to RM1.80.
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