KUALA LUMPUR, July 12 — Last-minute buying interest in selected heavyweights led by utilities as well as consumer products and services stocks helped to lift the FTSE Bursa Malaysia KLCI (FBM KLCI) to end today’s session on a positive note, a dealer said.
However, on the broader market, losers thumped gainers 569 to 292, while 357 counters were unchanged, 1,022 untraded, and eight others suspended.
At 5 pm, the FBM KLCI rose marginally by 0.29 of-a-point to 1,426.08 from Friday’s close of 1,425.79.
The benchmark index, which opened 0.40 of-a-point higher at its intraday high of 1,426.19, slipped to its low of 1,418.50 in late afternoon before clawing back into the positive territory.
Total turnover advanced to 2.36 billion units valued at RM1.27 billion from Friday’s close of 1.62 billion units valued at RM1.12 billion.
Rakuten Trade Sdn Bhd vice-president of equity research Thong Pak Leng said most key regional indices trended lower following the negative cues from Wall Street overnight.
“Investors are cautious as they await the upcoming United States’ inflation report and China’s economic data later this week,” he told Bernama.
On the domestic front, he said sentiment remained jittery given the heightened market volatility although bargain hunting may prevail.
“We believe the FBM KLCI remains oversold at the present level. We expect the index to trend within a wider range of 1410-1,440 for the remainder of the week,” he said.
Among the heavyweights, Maybank rose two sen to RM8.64, Public Bank was flat at RM4.40, Petronas Chemicals trimmed 19 sen to RM8.28, IHH Healthcare gained three sen to RM6.39, TNB advanced 11 sen to RM8.03, and PPB improved 40 sen to RM16.00.
Of the actives, TWL gained half-a-sen to seven sen, Yong Tai dropped two sen to six sen, Metronic fell 1.5 sen to eight sen, Top Glove increased two sen to RM1.01, and Widad gave up half-a-sen to 36.5 sen.
On the index board, the FBM Emas Index fell 20.45 points to 10,116.08, the FBM Emas Shariah Index slid 37.01 points to 10,156.91, the FBM 70 lost 91.67 points to 12,104.64, the FBMT 100 Index was 15.92 points lower at 9,877.16, and the FBM ACE dropped 89.30 points to 4,578.51.
Sector-wise, the Financial Services Index perked up 11.10 points to 16,088.22, the Industrial Products and Services Index shed 2.62 points to 170.21, and the Plantation Index climbed 85.07 points to 6,719.93.
The Main Market volume expanded to 1.64 billion shares worth RM1.10 billion against 1.04 billion shares worth RM907.02 million last Friday.
Warrants turnover swelled to 452.94 million units valued at RM86.22 million from 371.77 million units valued at RM72.25 million previously.
The ACE Market volume declined to 267.91 million shares worth RM86.74 million versus 329.36 million shares worth RM100.21 million.
Consumer products and services counters accounted for 165.92 million shares traded on the Main Market, industrial products and services (368.51 million), construction (33.07 million), technology (128.20 million), SPAC (nil), financial services (38.24 million), property (561.63 million), plantation (29.25 million), REITs (4.03 million), closed/fund (19,500), energy (116.78 million), healthcare (154.64 million), telecommunications and media (19.21 million), transportation and logistics (15.39 million), and utilities (8.19 million). — Bernama