Bursa Malaysia ends higher amid Wall Street gains, strong commodity prices

KUALA LUMPUR: Bursa Malaysia ended higher today, taking a cue from the better performance on Wall Street last Friday and strong commodity prices amid receding concerns over the Omicron variant’s impact on global economic growth, dealers said.

At 5 pm, the benchmark FTSE Bursa Malaysia KLCI (FBM KLCI) rose 5.98 points to 1,494.86 compared with 1,488.88 at last Friday’s close.

The index, which opened 3.0 points higher at 1,491.88, moved between 1,491.85 and 1,501.88 throughout the day.

On the broader market, gainers outpaced losers 491 to 386, while 439 counters were unchanged, 979 untraded and 21 others suspended.

Turnover increased to 2.63 billion units valued at RM1.85 billion from Friday’s 2.60 billion units valued at RM1.74 billion.

A dealer said the local bourse rebounded from last Friday’s losses to open higher and stayed in positive territory throughout the day, bucking the regional market trend which turned mixed at close.

Persistent buying in heavyweights stocks led by Petronas Chemicals (PetChem), Tenaga Nasional and financial sector stocks continued to support the barometer index, he said.

"Investors are focusing more on the conclusion of the Federal Open Market Committee (FOMC) meeting this week as well as other central banks for further clues on the monetary policies going forward.

"However, major attention will be given to the FOMC’s reaction to the Omicron variant, as well as the timing of its stimulus tapering and rate hikes, for market direction,” he added.

Regionally, Japan's Nikkei 225 rose 0.71 per cent to 28,640.49, Hong Kong’s Hang Seng Index eased 0.17 per cent to 23,954.58, South Korea’s Kospi slipped 0.28 per cent to 3,001.66, and Singapore’s Straits Times Index shed 0.35 per cent to 3,124.66.

Rakuten Trade Sdn Bhd vice-president of equity research Thong Pak Leng said investors were cautious ahead of monetary policy meetings this week, including of the US Federal Reserve, the Bank of Japan, the Bank of England and the European Central Bank.

"As for the local bourse, we remain cautious despite the bargain hunting today due to the heightened market volatility and external uncertainties.

"Hence we expect the benchmark index to remain in range-bound trading in the 1,490 to 1,505 range for the remainder of the week with immediate resistance at 1,515 and support at 1,485,” he told Bernama.

Among the heavyweights, PetChem surged 13 sen to RM8.55 and Tenaga jumped 12 sen to RM9.28.

Maybank and CIMB gained six sen each to RM8.18 and RM5.24, respectively, and Public Bank improved one sen to RM4.00, but IHH Healthcare eased two sen to RM6.56.

Of the actives, ATA IMS bagged 2.5 sen to 54 sen, Lambo edged up half-a-sen to five sen, Dataprep shed five sen to RM1.04, Macpie eased half-a-sen to four sen, and Kanger was flat at two sen.

On the index board, the FBM Emas Index was 29.50 points higher at 10,889.29, the FBMT 100 Index advanced 23.07 points to 10,584.64, the FBM Emas Shariah Index increased 11.07 points to 11,725.32, and the FBM ACE added 2.76 points to 6,231.08.

The FBM 70 fell 46.11 points to 13,999.92.

Sector-wise, the Industrial Products and Services Index improved 1.40 points to 194.70, the Financial Services Index picked up 112.20 points to 15,221.53, and the Plantation Index bagged 62.60 points to 6,529.09.

The Main Market volume widened to 1.65 billion shares valued at RM1.62 billion versus Friday’s 1.48 billion shares valued at RM1.45 billion.

Warrants turnover increased to 270.54 million units worth RM46.49 million against 236.09 million units worth RM33.01 million.

The volume on the ACE Market reduced to 705.40 million shares valued at RM182.02 million from 823.75 million shares valued at RM261.61 million previously.

Consumer products and services counters accounted for 317.08 million shares traded on the Main Market, industrial products and services (498.34 million), construction (78.27 million), technology (238.73 million), SPAC (nil), financial services (69.53 million), property (104.33 million), plantation (12.46 million), REITs (6.44 million), closed/fund (792,800), energy (138.51 million), healthcare (112.41 million), telecommunications and media (23.52 million), transportation and logistics (35.26 million), and utilities (16.69 million). - Bernama