By BERNAMA
Bursa Malaysia extended its rally to end higher today, buoyed by the rebound in the oil prices and positive sentiment on Malaysia’s economy, dealers said.
The benchmark FTSE Bursa Malaysia KLCI (FBM KLCI) rose 24.29 points to close at 1,625.21 against Thursday’s close of 1,600.92 points.
The index opened higher at 1,609.4 points and moved between 1,609.4 and 1,626.49 throughout the day.
Market breadth was positive with gainers overwhelming losers by 712 to 217, while 280 counters were unchanged, 543 untraded and 21 suspended.
Total volume eased to 1.93 billion shares worth RM1.8 billion from 2.52 billion shares worth RM2.12 billion yesterday.
A dealer said the local and regional markets were lifted by the recovery in the oil prices, which had hit 12-year lows earlier in the week.
“The oil prices had managed to recover some of the past days’ heavy losses,” he said.
Brent crude was up 98 cents at US$30.23 per barrel, while US crude was 85 cents higher at US$30.38 per barrel.
The local market was also encouraged by banking stocks, which were some of the best performers, following Bank Negara Malaysia’s (BNM) move to cut statutory reserve requirements to improve liquidity in the financial system.
BNM also maintained its overnight policy rate at 3.25%.
Meanwhile, Affin Hwang Investment Bank vice-president and retail research head Nazri Khan Adam Khan said despite the short-term rebound, the local bourse will trend lower on lingering concerns over the slowdown in China, weaker global growth outlook and depressing crude oil prices.
“Sector-wise, however, we see ample play on technology stocks which benefit strongly from the weaker ringgit and falling oil price,” he told Bernama.
Japan’s Nikkei edged up 5.88% to 16,958.53, Hong Kong’s Hang Seng added 2.81% to 19,063.29 and Singapore’s Straits Times rose 1.81% to 2,578.61.
Of the heavyweights, Public Bank increased 34 sen to RM18.20, TNB added 18 sen to RM12.80, Maybank gained 13 sen to RM8.31, Genting Bhd perked 24 sen to RM7.26 and Genting Malaysia rose 13 sen to RM4.19.
Leading the top losers’ list were Negri Sembilan Oil Palm which lost 15 sen to RM4.05, Nestle fell 10 sen to RM73.32, and Karex and Boustead Holdings eased 9 sen each to RM4.23 and RM3.80 respectively.
Among actives, Sanichi Technology inched up 0.5 sen to 7.5 sen, AirAsia X gained 2 sen to 21.5 sen and XOX rose 1 sen to 17 sen. Tiger Synergy was unchanged at 8.5 sen.
On the scoreboard, the FBM Emas Index jumped 154.64 points to 11,331.37, FBMT100 Index leaped 148.74 points to 11,030.15 and the FBM Emas Syariah Index advanced 125.77 points to 12,231.37.
The FBM 70 firmed 112.94 points to 12,687.11 and the FBM ACE added 113.64 points to 5,968.04.
Sector-wise, the Industrial Index was up 47.75 points to 3,146.42, Finance Index surged 247.6 points to 13,629.51 and the Plantation Index added 31.14 points to 7,458.8.
Main Market volume eased to 1.1 billion units worth RM1.64 billion from Thursday’s 1.52 billion units worth RM1.91 billion.
Turnover on the ACE Market declined to 408.83 million shares valued at RM75.4 million from 412.93 million shares valued at RM99.12 million yesterday.
Warrants decreased to 421.57 million units worth RM80.89 million from yesterday’s 579.94 million units worth RM110.79 million.
Consumer products accounted for 123.97 million shares traded on the Main Market, industrial products (279.28 million), construction (46.29 million), trade and services (400.83 million), technology (29.96 million), infrastructure (127.72 million), Spac (13.28 million), finance (51.49 million), hotels (1.57 million), properties (119.74 million), plantations (15.38 million), mining (0), Reits (6.85 million) and closed/fund (249,400).
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