Rakuten Trade Sdn Bhd vice-president of equity research Thong Pak Leng said the key regional indices ended mostly lower due to profit-taking, tracking the broadly negative cue from Wall Street overnight.
Thong said market sentiment remained cautious as investors awaited policy hints from the Federal Reserve ahead of its annual Jackson Hole symposium from Aug 21-23.
As for the local bourse, he said investor sentiment continues to improve as the benchmark index has breached the 1,585 resistance level.
“With the index reclaiming levels last seen in early 2025, we believe this could pave the way to the 1,600 psychological level and further strengthen the case for a sustained uptrend toward 1,640,” Thong said.
“For the moment, we maintain our weekly FTSE Bursa Malaysia KLCI (FBM KLCI) target of between 1,570 and 1,600, then 1,620 if momentum continues,” he told Bernama.
At 5pm, the FBM KLCI rose 5.28 points, or 0.33% to close at 1,590.24 from yesterday’s close of 1,584.96.
The benchmark index opened 2.47 points firmer at 1,587.43, and moved between 1,584.62 and 1,594.40 throughout the day.
The broader market was positive with advancers leading decliners 503 to 489, while 510 counters were unchanged, 1,084 untraded and six suspended.
Turnover improved to 2.60 billion units worth RM2.74 billion from 2.54 billion units worth RM2.72 billion yesterday.
Among the heavyweights, Maybank added 2 sen to RM9.80, Tenaga Nasional jumped 10 sen to RM13.72, CIMB climbed 6 sen to RM7.39, IHH Healthcare improved 3 sen to RM6.85, while Public Bank was flat at RM4.46.
Of the most active counters, Velesto earned 0.5 sen to 19 sen, Tanco eased 0.5 sen to 73 sen, Zetrix fell 3.5 sen to 86.5 sen, Genetec slid 6 sen to 56.5 sen, while TWL holdings was flat at 2.5 sen.
Meanwhile, trading in the securities of Pestec International Bhd was halted between 3.01pm and 4.01pm today.
Bursa said stocks of the company and its warrant will be forbidden from direct business transactions until 10am tomorrow, Aug 20, 2025, as per Bursa Trading Rule 10.10(1).
Across the broader market, the FBM Emas Index increased 33.61 points to 11,812.41, the FBMT 100 Index gained 35.06 points to 11,597.65, the FBM Emas Shariah Index climbed 37.77 points to 11,731.40, the FBM 70 Index advanced 35.40 points to 16,709.97, while the FBM ACE Index slipped 4.53 points to 4,709.69.
By sector, the financial services index garnered 55.13 points to 18,185.50, the plantation index bagged 11.72 points to 7,546.48, the industrial products and services index perked up 0.77 of-a-point to 159.12, while the energy index gained 11.87 points to 750.22.
The Main Market volume rose to 1.49 billion units valued at RM2.51 billion from yesterday’s 1.39 billion units valued at RM2.47 billion.
Warrants turnover jumped to 732.43 million units worth RM101.91 million from 694.21 million units worth RM98.99 million previously.
The ACE Market volume declined to 375.68 million units worth RM134.87 million from 459.40 million units worth RM150.63 million yesterday.
Consumer products and services counters accounted for 223.04 million shares traded on the Main Market; industrial products and services (213.61 million), construction (125.83 million), technology (214.04 million), financial services (82.87 million), property (219.62 million), plantation (20.82 million), REITs (47.04 million), closed-end fund (nil), energy (161.39 million), healthcare (61.74 million), telecommunications and media (52.01 million), transportation and logistics (28.54 million), utilities (39.39 million), and business trusts (308,400).