BARGAIN HUNTING PUSHES BURSA MALAYSIA HIGHER IN EARLY TRADE

By Anas Abu Hassan

KUALA LUMPUR, Dec 27 (Bernama) -- Bursa Malaysia continued to open on a positive note today on persistent bargain-hunting activities amid mixed cues from Wall Street’s performance overnight, said an analyst. 

At 9.04 am, the FTSE Bursa Malaysia KLCI (FBM KLCI) rose 7.97 points to 1,621.67 compared with yesterday’s close of 1,613.70.

The benchmark index opened 3.86 points higher at 1,617.56.

The broader market was positive, with gainers outpacing decliners 180 to 96, while 274 counters remained unchanged, 1,872 were untraded, and 40 were suspended.

Turnover stood at 133 million units valued at RM73.76 million.  

Rakuten Trade Sdn Bhd head of research Kenny Yee said bargain-hunting activities provided much-needed support for the local bourse to finally close above the 1,610 level yesterday.

“Nonetheless, the daily volume traded remained low as foreign selling may be drying up, hence offering ample opportunities for the benchmark index to climb further, hopefully to above the 1,630 mark.

“As such, we expect the index to possibly hover within the 1,610-1,620 range today,” he told Bernama. 

Among heavyweights, Tenaga Nasional soared 40 sen to RM14.58, Maybank and Public Bank each gained two sen to RM10.14 and RM4.56, respectively, and CIMB added three sen to RM8.07, while IHH Healthcare was flat at RM7.20.

For active stocks, Vanzo put on one sen to 21.5 sen, Ta Win was unchanged at two sen, and JCY lost half-a-sen to 55.5 sen, while Winstar Capital garnered 2.5 sen to 67 sen and MYEG rose half-a-sen to 95.5 sen.

On the index board, the FBM Emas Index earned 42.54 points to 12,422.12, the FBM Emas Shariah Index climbed 60.70 points to 12,414.19, and the FBMT 100 Index added 50.34 points to 12,112.95.

The FBM 70 Index advanced 43.09 points to 18,610.97, and the FBM ACE Index edged up 13.64 points to 5,347.00.

By sector, the Financial Services Index appreciated 29.30 points to 18,987.62, the Industrial Products and Services Index edged up 0.64 of-a-point to 173.99, the Energy Index increased by 1.01 points to 823.19, and the Plantation Index picked up 18.16 points to 7,559.27.

-- BERNAMA