Rakuten Trade Sdn Bhd equity research vice-president Thong Pak Leng reiterated that the FTSE Bursa Malaysia KLCI (FBM KLCI) closed significantly higher today as bargain-hunting activities emerged following last week’s selloff.
Meanwhile, key regional indices ended mixed.
“Nonetheless, buying in technology stocks remains strong, driven by continuous high demand in artificial intelligence (AI) and related sectors.
“Primarily, Nvidia announced a new generation of AI chips for 2025 and a next-generation platform in development called Rubin for 2026 at a computer conference in Taiwan,” he told Bernama.
Thong said he is cautiously optimistic about the local bourse given the improving investor sentiment.
“Thanks to the return of foreign funds and a strong daily market turnover of about 4.5 billion shares worth close to RM4 billion we anticipate the FBM KLCI to trend within the range of 1,610-1,630 for the week, with immediate resistance at 1,615 and support at 1,600,” he added.
At 5pm, the FBM KLCI jumped 18.72 points, or 1.17%, to 1,615.40 from Friday’s close of 1,596.68.
The benchmark index, which opened 0.74 of-a-point lower at 1,595.94, fluctuated between 1,595.35 and 1,617.41 throughout the trading session.
On the broader market, gainers surpassed decliners 666 to 545, with 467 counters unchanged, 674 untraded, and 16 others suspended.
Turnover declined to 4.46 billion units worth RM3.94 billion from Friday’s 5.45 billion units worth RM6.84 billion.
Among the heavyweight stocks, Maybank added 13 sen to RM10.06, Public Bank gained five sen to RM4.15. and CIMB Group rallied 15 sen to RM6.99.
IHH Healthcare was unchanged at RM6.19 while Tenaga Nasional Bhd dropped six sen to RM12.98.
Among the actives, JCY International gained seven sen to 59.5 sen, SNS Network Technology climbed five sen to 65.5 sen and Sealink International added 2.5 sen to 30.5 sen.
MyEG Services and Velesto Energy both were flat at RM1.10 and 26.5 sen, respectively.
On the index board, the FBM Emas Index jumped 116.97 points to 12,278.49, the FBMT 100 Index expanded 114.31 points to 11,883.97 and the FBM Emas Shariah Index bounced 111.29 points to 12,503.65.
The FBM 70 Index gained 73.86 points to 17,555.4 while the FBM ACE Index added 34.47 points to 5,424.04.
Sector-wise, the financial services index rallied 197.66 points to 17,723.88, the industrial products and services index rose 2.03 points to 196.8 and the plantation index surged 107.6 points to 7,179.
The energy index slipped 0.51 of-a-point to 966.85 while the consumer products and services index eased 0.92 of-a-point to 598.1.
The Main Market volume dropped to 2.57 billion units worth RM3.5 billion from 3.36 billion units worth RM6.4 billion last Friday.
Warrants turnover declined to 922.85 million units valued at RM105.78 million from 1.29 billion units valued at RM163.14 million.
The ACE Market volume grew to 955.62 million shares worth RM332.94 million from 744.46 million shares worth RM278.92 million previously.
Consumer products and services counters accounted for 376.43 million shares traded on the Main Market, industrial products and services (494.43 million), construction (238.6 million), technology (453.62 million), SPAC (nil), financial services (119.68 million), property (295.52 million), plantation (33.29 million), REITs (159.27 million), closed/fund (13,700), energy (166.86 million), healthcare (77.05 million), telecommunications and media (80.25 million), transportation and logistics (155.72 million), utilities (70.05 million), and business trusts (231,500).