KUALA LUMPUR: The FTSE Bursa Malaysia KLCI (FBM KLCI) rebounded from yesterday's loss to end higher today, with the key index advancing by 0.62 per cent driven by bargain hunting activities, a dealer said.
However, on the broader market, losers surpassed gainers 454 to 332, while 421 counters were unchanged, 1,069 untraded and eight others suspended.
At 5 pm, the FBM KLCI rose 8.74 points to its intraday high of 1,420.06 versus Wednesday's close of 1,411.32.
The benchmark index which opened 2.49 points lower at its intraday low of 1,408.83, gained momentum in the mid-morning session and continued to rise until the final hour of trading day.
Total turnover advanced to 2.01 billion units valued at RM1.20 billion against 1.76 billion units valued at RM1.28 billion on Wednesday.
Rakuten Trade Sdn Bhd vice-president of equity research Thong Pak Leng noted that the FBM KLCI remained in an oversold position after heavy sell-downs over the past seven weeks.
Despite the positive close today, he said investor sentiment remained jittery due to external factors such as increasing market risks and volatility on global markets.
"As such, we anticipate the benchmark index to trend sideways, slightly positive biased within the range of 1,415-1,430 towards the weekend,” he said.
Among the heavyweights, Maybank and CIMB rose one sen to RM8.62 and RM5.10 respectively, Public Bank gained three sen to RM4.40, Petronas Chemicals added 15 sen to RM8.03 and IHH Healthcare gained two sen to RM6.44.
Of the actives, Metronic increased two sen to nine sen, TWL eased half-a-sen to six sen, Top Glove added one sen to RM1.02 and BSL Corporation
ticked up 2.5 sen to 9.5 sen.
On the index board, the FBM Emas Index went up 38.30 points to 10,061.90, the FBM Emas Shariah Index ticked up 52.33 points to 10,092.26, the FBM 70 slipped 15.37 points to 12,022.03, the FBMT 100 Index improved 43.50 points to 9,829.47, and the FBM ACE rose 13.84 points to 4,552.82.
Sector-wise, the Financial Services Index advanced 40 points to 16,060.20, the Industrial Products and Services Index was 1.32 points higher at 168.03 and the Plantation Index weakened 17.49 points to 6,669.21.
The Main Market volume widened to 1.45 billion shares worth RM1.07 billion against 1.09 billion shares worth RM1.12 billion on Wednesday.
Warrants turnover improved to 275.17 million units valued at RM49.74 million versus 263.33 million units valued at RM45.05 million yesterday.
The ACE Market volume narrowed to 273.22 million shares worth RM80.63 million from 396.49 million shares worth RM112.67 million previously.
Consumer products and services counters accounted for 169.75 million shares traded on the Main Market, industrial products and services (692.70 million), construction (25.74 million), technology (99.56 million), SPAC (nil), financial services (35.71 million), property (134.23 million), plantation (36.49 million), REITs (3.03 million), closed/fund (30,600), energy (107.60 million), healthcare (83.94 million), telecommunications and media (28.29 million), transportation and logistics (18.25 million), and utilities (19.05 million). - Bernama
