UOB Kay Hian Wealth Advisors Sdn Bhd head of investment research Sedek Jantan said technology, and industrial products and services sectors have shown continued resilience.
“We believe the sectoral rebound has been supported by Nvidia’s strong earnings performance, which exceeded market expectations.
“This has improved sentiment in the technology and artificial intelligence (AI) sector.
“The steep drop in oil price could also conceivably relieve pressures on operating costs in 2025,” he told Bernama.
He added the FTSE Bursa Malaysia KLCI (FBM KLCI) has still not breached the 1,590 level, indicating that the market will continue to consolidate and remain sensitive to any negative news.
“However, this could change due to the ongoing earnings season,” he said.
At 5pm, the FBM KLCI fell 2.11 points to 1,586.60 from yesterday’s close of 1,588.71.
The market bellwether opened 0.72 of-a-point easier at 1,587.99 and moved between 1,583.45 and 1,588.29 throughout the day.
On the broader market, gainers led decliners 573 to 419, while 484 counters were unchanged, 912 untraded, and 97 suspended.
Turnover improved to 2.89 billion units worth RM2.45 billion from 2.81 billion units worth RM2.47 billion yesterday.
Among Bursa heavyweights, Maybank slipped 4 sen to RM10.66, CIMB and Public Bank shed 6 sen each to RM8.22 and RM4.49, respectively, Tenaga Nasional eased 2 sen to RM13.56, and IHH Healthcare gained 1 sen to RM7.31.
As for active stocks, Sapura Energy and MyEG Services inched up 0.5 sen to 3.5 sen and 95.5 sen, respectively, NEXG (formerly Datasonic) lost 2 sen to 25.5 sen, Inari Amertron put on 3 sen to RM2.19, and Ingenieur Gudang was flat at 4 sen.
On the index board, the FBM Emas Index ticked up 35.68 points to 11,919.95, the FBMT 100 Index garnered 27.92 points to 11,666.97, the FBM Emas Shariah Index increased 63.22 points to 11,595.80, the FBM 70 Index surged 213.57 points to 17,216.91, and the FBM ACE Index climbed 25.08 points to 4,823.97.
By sector, the industrial products and services index edged up 2.74 points to 162.13, the plantation index was 39.79 points firmer at 7,581.85, and the energy index perked up 4.58 points to 767.20, but the financial services index sank 61.11 points to 19,416.44.
The Main Market volume advanced to 1.65 billion units worth RM2.21 billion from 1.58 billion units worth RM2.23 billion yesterday.
Warrants turnover expanded to 914.73 million units worth RM127.51 million against 818.87 million units worth RM100.62 million previously.
The ACE Market volume slipped to 320.5 million units valued at RM107.68 million versus 414.92 million units valued at RM138.96 million yesterday.
Consumer products and services counters accounted for 187.65 million shares traded on the Main Market, industrial products and services (258.49 million), construction (112.76 million), technology (254.87 million), SPAC (nil), financial services (87.11 million), property (141.34 million), plantation (25.32 million), REITs (16.7 million), closed/fund (31,200), energy (414.83 million), healthcare (49.1 million), telecommunications and media (33.64 million), transportation and logistics (27.82 million), utilities (44.84 million), and business trusts (127,600).