Tenaga Nasional shares added 20 sen to RM14 with 10.85 million shares changing hands.
Rakuten Trade Sdn Bhd vice-president of equity research Thong Pak Leng said the better local market showing tracked Wall Street’s gains, as investors set aside initial worries over Nvidia Corp’s revenue forecast.
“The robust performance of the global technology sector, led by Nvidia’s encouraging results, is likely to positively influence Asian markets, particularly in South Korea and Taiwan, where semiconductor industries hold a dominant position.
“Despite this, geopolitical tensions remain a concern as Russian president Vladimir Putin announced that the country had fired a new intermediate-range ballistic missile at Ukraine,” he told Bernama.
Meanwhile, UOB Kay Hian Wealth Advisors head of investment research Sedek Jantan said the FTSE Bursa Malaysia KLCI (FBM KLCI) closed slightly higher today, reflecting the positive momentum from Wall Street, but the index remained below the critical psychological threshold of 1,600.
“While the gains were encouraging, they appear tenuous, with continued pressure from underperforming utility stocks weighing on the broader market,” he added.
At 5pm, the FBM KLCI rose 1.10 points or 0.07% to close at 1,589.78 from yesterday’s close of 1,588.68.
The benchmark index, which opened 4.36 points better at 1,593.04, moved between 1,587.74 and 1,593.85 during the trading session.
However, the broader market was negative, with decliners beating gainers 553 to 479 while 509 counters remained unchanged, 924 untraded, and 23 suspended.
Turnover declined to 2.59 billion units valued at RM2.28 billion versus 3.44 billion units valued at RM2.5 billion yesterday.
Among heavyweights, CIMB put on 1 sen to RM8.22, IHH Healthcare gained 2 sen to RM7.19, Public Bank and Hong Leong Bank eased 2 sen to RM4.38 and RM20.48 respectively, while Maybank was flat RM10.20.
As for the active stocks, Globetronics Technology perked up by 3.5 sen to 54.5 sen, Zen Tech International edged down 0.5 sen to 1 sen, YTL Corporation shed 6 sen RM1.77, Cape EMS erased 1.5 sen to 35.5 sen, while MyEG was flat at 91 sen.
On the index board, the FBM Emas Shariah Index jumped 54.62 points to 12,125.51, the FBM 70 Index garnered 90.36 points to 17,934.02, the FBM Emas Index increased 23.38 points to 12,110.99, the FBMT 100 Index rose 23.21 points to 11,814.43, but the FBM ACE Index reduced by 34.87 points to 5,163.07.
Sector-wise, the industrial products and services index edged up 1.27 points to 173.28, the plantation index lost 27.86 points to 7,538.52, the energy index gave up 5.98 points to 820.12, and the financial services index climbed 5.94 points to 19,037.07.
The Main Market volume declined to 1.32 billion units worth RM2.07 billion against yesterday’s 1.56 billion units worth RM2.22 billion.
Warrants turnover dwindled to 879.56 million units valued at RM100.89 million from 1.11 billion units valued at RM132.11 million previously.
The ACE Market volume slid to 391.2 million units worth RM108.95 million compared with 768.09 million units worth RM140.87 million yesterday.
Consumer products and services counters accounted for 249.21 million shares traded on the Main Market, industrial products and services (284.97 million), construction (81.81 million), technology (181.18 million), SPAC (nil), financial services (55.33 million), property (156.09 million), plantation (29.67 million), REITs (9.5 million), closed/fund (145,200), energy (85.3 million), healthcare (42.49 million), telecommunications and media (17.06 million), transportation and logistics (27.04 million), utilities (95.57 million), and business trusts (1.36 million).