BURSA MALAYSIA ENDS HIGHER IN LINE WITH MOST REGIONAL MARKETS

By Siti Radziah Hamzah

KUALA LUMPUR, Sept 20 (Bernama) -- Bursa Malaysia ended higher on Friday in line with most Asian markets, mirroring gains from Wall Street, where investors welcomed the US Federal Reserve's substantial interest rate cut.

The FTSE Bursa Malaysia KLCI (FBM KLCI) rose by 3.17 points, or 0.19 per cent, to 1,668.82 at the close from Thursday's close of 1,665.65.

It opened 5.03 points higher at 1,670.68, trading between 1,668.48 and 1,674.04 throughout the session.

In the broader market, gainers outpaced decliners 732 to 468, while 465 counters were unchanged, 850 untraded and 32 suspended.

Turnover swelled to 4.19 billion units worth RM5.97 billion, from Thursday's 3.99 billion units worth RM4.08 billion.

UOB Kay Hian Wealth Advisors head of investment research, Mohd Sedek Jantan, noted the FBM KLCI's gains were led by utilities, logistics, and banking stocks, reflecting improved market sentiment.

Additionally, small- and mid-cap stocks in the manufacturing sector showed a rebound, positioning themselves to benefit from the continued rise in the US rate cut.

The recent appreciation of the ringgit has also provided a lift to the consumer, utilities, financial, and automotive sectors, Mohd Sedek said.

"We expect earnings from data centre projects to start materialising in the coming quarter, which should drive growth in the construction, building materials, and property sectors as we move towards 2025,” he told Bernama.

Regionally, Japan's Nikkei 225 rallied 1.53 per cent to 37,723.91, Hong Kong's Hang Seng Index jumped 1.36 per cent to 18,258.57, and Singapore's Straits Times Index eased 0.34 per cent to 3,620.78.

Among Bursa Malaysia's heavyweight counters, Public Bank gained one sen to RM4.70, CIMB surged 15 sen to RM8.44, Press Metal added one sen to RM4.94, MISC rose eight sen to RM8.22, TNB was flat at RM14.64, IHH Healthcare shed five sen to RM7.10, and Hong Leong Bank declined two sen to RM21.08.

Active counters included Sime Darby Property, which advanced five sen to RM1.54, Top Glove, which jumped six sen to RM1.10, and Sunway, adding one sen to RM4.39. Capital A gained seven sen to 89 sen, OCR remained flat at six sen, while Cape EMS inched down half-a-sen to 37.5 sen.

On the index board, the FBM Emas Index gained 50.04 points to 12,538.75, the FBM Emas Shariah Index expanded by 33.39 points to 12,412.47, and the FBMT 100 Index added 43.40 points to 12,231.21.

The FBM 70 Index soared 138.64 points to 17,941.90, and the FBM ACE Index bounced by 23.45 points to 5,202.83.

By sector, the Financial Services Index garnered 73.33 points to 19,688.81, the Energy Index grew 1.62 points to 876.72, the Plantation Index declined 10.48 points to 7,176.65, while the Industrial Products and Services Index eased 0.59 of-a-point to 178.84.

The Main Market volume was higher at 2.74 billion units worth RM5.72 billion, compared to Thursday's 2.16 billion units worth RM3.74 billion.

Warrant turnover fell to 1.05 billion units worth RM108.90 million from 1.28 billion units worth RM145.78 million the previous day.

The ACE Market volume narrowed to 393.99 million units worth RM135.41 million, down from 554.21 million units worth RM196.59 million.

Consumer products and services counters accounted for 375.10 million shares traded on the Main Market, industrial products and services (478.29 million), construction (267.94 million), technology (307.13 million), SPAC (nil), financial services (197.75 million), property (450.81 million), plantation (28.63 million), REITs (76.68 million), closed/fund (226,200), energy (117.64 million), healthcare (215.37 million), telecommunications and media (55.34 million), transportation and logistics (36.53 million), utilities (134.81 million), and business trusts (1.33 million).

-- BERNAMA