KUALA LUMPUR: Last-minute buying mainly in financial and plantation heavyweights helped lift Bursa Malaysia to end today’s session on a positive note, erasing losses from the earlier sessions.
At 5 pm, the FTSE Bursa Malaysia KLCI (FBM KLCI) increased 1.55 points, or 0.09 per cent, to 1,615.64 compared with Wednesday’s close of 1,614.09.
The index opened 2.05 points higher at 1,616.14 and moved between 1,610.77 and 1,617.78 during the day.
Advancers led decliners 538 to 537 on the broader market, with 519 counters unchanged, 862 untraded and 11 suspended.
Turnover decreased to 3.24 billion units valued at RM2.74 billion versus 3.60 billion units valued at RM3.30 billion on Wednesday.
An analyst noted that continued buying of banking stocks indicates increased investor confidence following stronger earnings in the third quarter of 2024 (3Q 2024).
Financial services heavyweights counters -- Public Bank and Maybank added four sen each to RM4.57 and RM10.22 respectively, RHB ticked up one sen to RM6.58, and Hong Leong Financial bagged two sen to RM18.50.
Meanwhile, CIMB Securities maintained its "Overweight” stance on the banking sector with further rerating catalysts being non-interest income (NII) bond gains and possible uplift to loan growth.
"For 3Q 2024, almost all banks’ annualised net earnings were solidly above our full-year forecasts.
"The main positive variance in 3Q 2024 stemmed from buoyant NII, which spiked 12.7 per cent quarter-on-quarter and 28.1 per cent year-on-year, pushing up quarterly NII to a new high of RM6.2 billion, much higher than the RM4-RM5 billion range during 2023,” it said in a note.
Bank Muamalat Malaysia Bhd chief economist Dr Mohd Afzanizam Abdul Rashid said the local stock market remained stable today after experiencing encouraging gains yesterday, with major global stock markets in the US continuing to hit record highs.
"Nevertheless, market sentiment remains cautious due to concerns over President-elect Donald Trump's economic policies for next year, as well as the unclear prospects of interest rate cuts by the US Federal Reserve in 2025, given that tariffs could lead to higher inflation.
"As a result, the local market sentiment is expected to remain in cautious mode,” he told Bernama.
Other heavyweights, CIMB was one sen lower at RM8.19, Tenaga Nasional fell four sen to RM13.60 but IHH added three sen to RM7.33.
Newly-listed Cropmate remained the top active counter, increasing one sen to 21 sen, Supermax firmed 10 sen to 98.5 sen, JCY International bagged 1.5 sen to 50 sen, Bumi Armada
gained 2.5 sen to 62 sen, and MYEG inched up half-a-sen to 91 sen.
On the index board, the FBM Emas Index rose 13.56 points to 12,328.19, the FBMT 100 Index increased 13.60 points to 12,014.28, and the FBM 70 Index added 28.43 points to 18,265.54. The FBM Emas Shariah Index shed 2.37 points to 12,304.14 and the FBM ACE Index dropped 20.49 points to 5,244.76.
Sector-wise, the Financial Services Index increased 59.30 points to 19,193.02, the Plantation Index gained 31.19 points to 7,778.25, the Energy Index climbed 3.08 points to 820.56, while the Industrial Products and Services Index eased 0.81 of-a-point to 175.32.
The Main Market volume slid to 1.65 billion units worth RM2.42 billion against Wednesday’s close of 2.00 billion units worth RM3.04 billion.
Warrants turnover declined to 920.42 million units valued at RM99.11 million from 991.02 million units valued at RM88.62 million previously.
The ACE Market volume expanded to 662.72 million units worth RM213.96 million compared with 604.62 million units worth RM174.58 million yesterday.
Consumer products and services counters accounted for 241.52 million shares traded on the Main Market, industrial products and services (251.56 million), construction (74.04 million), technology (308.34 million), SPAC (nil), financial services (89.66 million), property (180.30 million), plantation (55.80 million), REITs (14.80 million), closed/fund (8,600), energy (150.38 million), healthcare (165.50 million), telecommunications and media (29.49 million), transportation and logistics (51.18 million), utilities (45.50 million), and business trusts (36,700). - Bernama
