KUALA LUMPUR: Bursa Malaysia closed mixed today, with the key index moving in a tight range, in tandem with regional peers.
At 5 pm, the FTSE Bursa Malaysia KLCI (FBM KLCI) inched up 1.09 points to 1,428.13 from last Friday's closing of 1,427.04.
The barometer index opened 0.85 point higher at 1,427.89 and moved between 1,425.19 and 1,429.65 throughout the day.
The market breadth was negative as decliners led gainers 405 to 395, while 396 counters were unchanged, 1,021 untraded and 13 others suspended.
Turnover stood at 3.07 billion units worth RM1.45 billion.
Region-wise, Japan’s Nikkei 225 rose 0.42 per cent to 27,633.66, South Korea’s Kospi gained 0.87 per cent to 2,512.08, Singapore's Straits Times Index fell 0.18 per cent to 3,294.43, while China's SSE Composite Index went down 0.37 per cent to 3,315.36.
Rakuten Trade Sdn Bhd equity research vice-president Thong Pak Leng expects bargain hunting in local stocks to continue given the lower valuation of the FBM KLCI.
"At present, the benchmark index is trading at 2023 forward price to earnings ratio of 13 times as compared with its five-year average of 15 times.
"Furthermore, buying support from foreign funds was rather apparent, hence, we reckon the index to show a more positive performance and expect it to hover between the 1,425 and 1,440 range for the week,” he told Bernama.
Meanwhile, Thong said traders had increasingly become convinced that the US Federal Reserve will cut rates in the second half to avoid an economic downturn.
Among the heavyweights, CIMB added two sen to RM5.18, while Maybank and Public Bank declined one sen each to RM8.65 and RM3.98 respectively, Petronas Chemicals trimmed 10 sen to RM7.40, and TNB shed five sen to RM9.18.
As for the actives, Top Glove advanced eight sen to RM1.15, Aimflex rose half-a-sen to 17.5 sen, Zen Tech and BSL Corp were both flat at 2.5 sen and five sen respectively, while Fitters Diversified
lost two sen to five sen.
On the index board, the FBM Emas Index added 22.64 points to 10,501.09, the FBMT 100 Index put on 23.68 points to 10,184.72, the FBM 70 Index rose 97.56 points to 13,736.31, the FBM Emas Shariah Index perked up 22.649 points to 10,501.09, while the FBM ACE Index was 23.14 points lower at 5,303.54.
Sector-wise, the Financial Services Index edged up 2.85 points to 15,704.12, the Plantation Index increased 76.05 points to 6,807.72 and the Energy Index added 0.90 of-a-point to 864.41, while the Industrial Products and Services Index eased 0.59 of-a-point to 174.16.
The Main Market volume improved to 2.08 billion units worth RM1.23 billion from 1.74 billion units worth RM1.23 billion on Friday last week.
Warrants turnover slid to 120.21 million units worth RM10.95 million against 133.69 million units worth RM11.30 million previously.
The ACE Market volume jumped to 868.38 million shares worth RM207.34 million versus 460.49 million shares worth RM142.29 million last Friday.
Consumer products and services counters accounted for 266.58 million shares traded on the Main Market, industrial products and services (754.80 million); construction (62.04 million); technology (147.31 million); SPAC (nil), financial services (35.08 million); property (211.26 million); plantation (21.81 million); REITs (5.17 million), closed/fund (49,400); energy (145.38 million); healthcare (299.53 million); telecommunications and media (65.20 million); transportation and logistics (51.15 million); and utilities (21.54 million). - Bernama
