Rakuten Trade Sdn Bhd vice-president of equity research Thong Pak Leng said key regional indices ended in positive territory following Wall Street’s upbeat mode and the return of foreign funds to the region.
“Investors hold a positive outlook, believing that the US Federal Reserve (Fed) has concluded its interest rate hikes for this cycle and anticipating the Fed to commence rate reductions in the early months of the upcoming year.
“Back home, we maintain our optimistic view on the local stock market in the mid-term, buoyed by the inflow of foreign funds and recovering economic conditions.
“We anticipate the benchmark index to trend within the 1,440-1,450 range towards the weekend,” he told Bernama.
Regionally, Singapore’s Straits Times Index improved 0.21% to 3,180.72, Japan’s Nikkei 225 Index expanded 0.87% to 32,287.21, Hong Kong’s Hang Seng Index jumped 2.05% to 18,212.17, China’s SSE Composite Index rose 0.12% to 3,082.24, while Indonesia’s Jakarta Composite Index slipped 0.32% to 6,899.39.
At 5pm, the FTSE Bursa Malaysia KLCI (FBM KLCI) gained 4.56 points to 1,444.67 from 1,440.11 at yesterday’s close.
The barometer index opened 1.41 points better at 1,441.52, its intraday low, and moved to an intraday high of 1,446.75 just minutes before trading ended.
On the broader market, gainers outpaced losers 500 to 421, while 416 counters were unchanged, 1,014 untraded and 30 others suspended.
Turnover increased to 3.53 billion units worth RM1.91 billion from yesterday’s 3.23 billion units worth RM1.97 billion.
Among the heavyweights, Maybank gained 2 sen to RM9.01, TNB perked up 1 sen to RM10, Petronas Chemicals advanced 5 sen to RM6.85, Public Bank and CIMB were flat at RM4.08 and RM5.58, respectively, and Petronas Gas shed 10 sen to RM17.04.
Among the actives, Velesto, MyEG and Glostrext all added 0.5 sen each to 24 sen, 81 sen and 25 sen, respectively, Sapura Energy was flat at five sen, Hong Seng eased 0.5 sen to 5 sen, RGB international fell 3.5 sen to 37.5 sen, while CN Asia eased 1 sen to 23 sen.
On the index board, the FBM Emas Index increased 32.68 points to 10,668.58, the FBMT 100 Index improved by 31.31 points to 10,350.09, the FBM Emas Shariah Index put on 51.96 points to 10,911.75, the FBM 70 Index climbed 37.16 points to 14,156.73, and the FBM ACE Index gained 29.64 points to 5,314.78.
Sector-wise, the financial services index rose 3.95 points to 16,186.94, the industrial products and services index edged up 0.49 of-a-point to 168.84, the plantation index expanded by 35.24 points to 6,998.32, and the energy index eased 0.06 of-a-point to 823.72.
The Main Market volume went up to 2.36 billion units worth RM1.6 billion from 2.16 billion units worth RM1.7 billion on Wednesday.
Warrants turnover swelled to 420.48 million units worth RM65.37 million from 364.58 million units worth RM46.19 million yesterday.
The ACE Market volume surged to 746.82 million shares worth RM240.07 million against Wednesday’s 364.58 million shares worth RM46.19 million previously.
Consumer products and services counters accounted for 478.43 million shares traded on the Main Market, industrial products and services (440.28 million); construction (97.12 million); technology (421.62 million); SPAC (nil); financial services (54.68 million); property (230.08 million); plantation (34.22 million); REITs (9.33 million), closed/fund (67,400); energy (427.22 million); healthcare (46.53 million); telecommunications and media (30.74 million); transportation and logistics (45.37 million); and utilities (44.23 million).