Rakuten Trade Sdn Bhd equity research vice-president Thong Pak Leng said the FTSE Bursa Malaysia KLCI (FBM KLCI) was unable to maintain its buying momentum as investors remained cautious ahead of key US employment data to be released later today.
“On the domestic front, despite the local market sentiment showing signs of improvement, our stance is to remain cautious as we expect that the market volatility will remain elevated in the near term,” he told Bernama.
At 5pm, the FBM KLCI edged up 1.28 points to 1,416.88 from yesterday’s closing of 1,415.60.
The index, which opened 0.31 of-a-point easier at 1,415.29, moved between 1,415.28 and 1,419.96 during the day.
The market breadth was positive with gainers outpacing decliners 449 to 407 while 449 counters were unchanged, 1,011 untraded and 15 others suspended.
Turnover dropped to 2.86 billion units worth RM2.09 billion from 3.11 billion units worth RM2.25 billion yesterday.
Regionally, Hong Kong’s Hang Seng Index expanded 1.58% to 17,485.98, Singapore’s Straits Times Index gained 0.70% to 3,177.21 and South Korea’s Kospi added 0.21% to 2,408.73.
Among the heavyweight counters, Maybank and CIMB gained one sen to RM8.77 and RM5.42, respectively, while Tenaga Nasional added six sen to RM10.02 and Public Bank shed one sen to RM4.03. Petronas Chemicals was unchanged at RM7.10.
Of the actives, Sapura was flat at five sen, KNM slid 0.5 sen to 17 sen and Top Glove lost three sen to 75.5 sen. Sarawak Consolidated put on 0.5 sen to 50 sen.
On the index board, the FBM Emas Index improved by 10.05 points to 10,503.84, the FBMT 100 Index widened by 7.35 points to 10,169.64 and the FBM Emas Shariah Index increased by 13.85 points to 10,794.09.
The FBM 70 Index went up 2.10 points to 13,992.17 and the FBM ACE Index added 38.87 points to 5,150.51.
Sector-wise, the plantation index shaved 0.41 of-a-point to 6,837.2 while the financial services index increased 5.92 points to 15,869.59 and the energy index climbed 0.67 points to 849.94.
The industrial products services index was stronger by 0.91 of-a-point to 170.82.
The Main Market volume decreased to 1.9 billion units worth RM1.84 billion from 2.06 billion units worth RM2.02 billion yesterday.
Warrant turnover expanded to 310.5 million units valued at RM44.32 million against 291.8 million units valued at RM34.6 million previously.
The ACE Market volume was reduced to 637.41 million shares worth RM203.19 million from 730.9 million shares worth RM193.29 million previously.
Consumer products and services counters accounted for 171.26 million shares traded on the Main Market, industrial products and services (379.08 million); construction (201 million); technology (73.96 million); SPAC (nil); financial services (88.55 million); property (257.86 million); plantation (31.24 million); REITs (9.97 million), closed/fund (14,630); energy (394.53 million); healthcare (154.6 million); telecommunications and media (32.96 million); transportation and logistics (47.93 million) and utilities (61.67 million).