KUALA LUMPUR : Bursa Malaysia reversed earlier losses to end the week higher today, as bargain hunters revisited the market at the eleventh hour to hunt for value stocks, especially popular blue-chips.
Inter-Pacific Securities Sdn Bhd research head Pong Teng Siew said given that the market was quite bullish on Thursday morning after Wednesday’s fall, it had actually improved investors’ risk-on mood.
“They were ready to buy in, but the market suddenly got hit and saw a big drop of as much as 20.55 points at yesterday’s close, prompting them to stay on the sidelines thereafter, as they were not sure what to make of the stock market,” he told Bernama.
At 5pm, the benchmark FTSE Bursa Malaysia KLCI (FBM KLCI) ticked up 3.0 points, or 0.18 per cent, to 1,666.66 from Thursday’s close of 1,663.66.
After opening 5.92 points firmer at 1,669.58, the market bellwether moved between 1,657.01 and 1,673.45 throughout the day.
Commenting on today’s performance, another dealer said following a three-day losing streak since Tuesday, bargain hunters had entered the market for undervalued blue chips, particularly the telecommunication-linked stocks.
“We see prices of all three telecommunication-related heavyweights, namely Maxis, Axiata and Digi, ranked among the top 10 stocks that made the biggest lift in terms of percentage,” he said.
At the close, Maxis rose 23 sen, or 4.31 per cent to RM5.56, Axiata increased six sen, or 1.42 per cent, to RM4.27 and Digi was up four sen, or 0.86 per cent, to RM4.65.
However, banking stocks which succumbed to selling pressure yesterday failed to gain traction, with Maybank losing 11 sen to RM9.29 while Public Bank and CIMB were flat at RM26.86 and RM5.33, respectively.
Among the most actives, Berjaya Corp was flat at 26.5 sen, Hibiscus was four sen higher at RM1.10, MyEG rose nine sen to RM1.39, and Orion improved 1.5 sen to 21.5 sen, but Dynaciate edged down half-a-sen to 9.5 sen.
Top gainer was Carlsberg, bagging 90 sen to RM26.50 while Ayer suffered as the top loser today, erasing 29 sen to RM4.31.
Market breadth remained negative with decliners thumping advancers 470 to 377 while 394 counters were unchanged, 671 untraded and 42 others suspended.
Volume slid to 2.75 billion units worth RM2.13 billion compared with 2.96 billion units valued at RM2.15 billion on Thursday. The FBM Emas Index rose 28.66 points to 11,683.17, the FBMT 100 increased 29.07 points to 11,537.19, the FBM Emas Shariah Index was 45.34 points higher at 11,755.15, the FBM Ace Index perked 35.46 points to 4,814.79 and the FBM 70 advanced 69.71 points to 14,252.55.
Sector-wise, the Industrial Products and Services Index edged up 0.29 of-a-point to 169.01, while the Financial Services Index fell 44.74 points to 17,174.77 and the Plantation Index retreated 15.89 points to 7,192.85.
Main Market volume widened to 2.75 billion shares worth RM2.13 billion versus 2.11 billion shares worth RM1.95 billion on Thursday.
Warrants slipped to 508.99 million units valued at RM97.46 million compared with 584.81 million units valued at RM127.72 million.
Volume on the ACE Market rose to 362.32 million shares worth RM78.63 million from 267.35 million shares worth RM64.37 million.
Consumer products and services accounted for 210.29 million shares traded on the Main Market, industrial products and services (521.89 million), construction (116.96 million), technology (210.33 million), SPAC (nil), financial services (48.55 million), property (99.88 million), plantation (19.93 million), REITs (14.75 million), closed/fund (nil), energy (538.82 million), healthcare (30.77 million), telecommunications and media (30.04 million), transportation and logistics (24.96 million), and utilities (13.63 million). -Bernama
