Rakuten Trade Sdn Bhd vice-president of equity research Thong Pak Leng said the brokerage remained constructive on the benchmark index’s near-term prospects as upward momentum continues to build.
“Overall, the FTSE Bursa Malaysia KLCI (FBM KLCI) is still in a healthy uptrend across short- to long-term timeframes.
“Market momentum remains supportive, and recent pullbacks appear to be healthy consolidations rather than signs of trend reversal,” he told Bernama.
At 5pm, the FBM KLCI jumped 16.97 points or 1.02% to end at an intraday high of 1,686.54 from yesterday’s close of 1,669.57.
A similar level was seen at 1,686.95 on March 7, 2019.
The benchmark had opened 0.87 of-a-point higher at 1,670.44 and hit an intraday low of 1,670.28 earlier.
On the broader market, gainers trounced losers 616 to 469, while 581 counters were unchanged, 983 untraded, and 24 suspended.
Turnover was higher at 2.83 billion units worth RM2.75 billion from yesterday’s 2.79 billion units worth RM2.84 billion.
Among the heavyweight counters, Maybank jumped 22 sen to RM10.86, Public Bank and CIMB advanced nine sen each to RM4.58 and RM8.15, respectively.
Press Metal strengthened by 12 sen to RM7.20, TNB was flat at RM13.56, and IHH Healthcare eased one sen to RM8.53.
Among the most active stocks, Zetrix AI rose 1.5 sen to 83 sen, VS Industry increased one sen to 49 sen, CBH Engineering gained two sen to 61.5 sen, Tanco was flat at RM1.23, and MMAG eased 0.5 sen to 6.5 sen.
Among the top gainers, Malaysian Pacific Industries strengthened by 90 sen to RM33.30, Hong Leong Bank expanded by 42 sen to RM23.06, Vitrox and Hong Leong Financial Group accumulated 38 sen each to RM4.69 and RM19.74, respectively.
As for the top decliners, Malayan Cement shed 15 sen to RM7.95, Panasonic slipped 13 sen to RM7.33, Hume Cement declined 11 sen to RM3.48, while Master-Pack and Atlan took off 10 sen each to RM1.90 and RM2.80, respectively.
On the index board, the FBM Emas Index decreased 10.68 points to 12,349.42, the FBM Top 100 Index slipped 15.20 points to 12,136.75, and the FBM Emas Shariah Index perked up 0.29 of-a-point to 12,167.04.
The FBM Mid 70 Index increased 146.38 points to 17,319.58, and the FBM ACE Index climbed 17.90 points to 4,982.21.
Sector-wise, the financial services index gave up 34.46 points to 19,739.73, the energy index edged up 0.66 of-a-point to 770.31, the plantation index garnered 39.76 points to 8,437.70, and the industrial products and services index eased 0.56 of-a-point to 171.90.
The Main Market volume was slightly higher at 1.54 billion units worth RM2.45 billion from yesterday’s 1.53 billion units worth RM2.51 billion.
Warrants turnover eased slightly to 804.62 million units worth RM101.94 million from 809.94 million units worth RM111.36 million yesterday.
The ACE Market volume expanded to 485.58 million units worth RM192.54 million from 458.51 million units worth RM216.69 million.
Consumer products and services counters accounted for 211.43 million shares traded on the Main Market, industrial products and services (300.05 million), construction (109.45 million), technology (315.59 million), financial services (112.01 million), property (171.81 million), plantation (26.32 million), real estate investment trusts (149.38 million), closed-end fund (20,300), energy (93.37 million), healthcare (79.56 million), telecommunications and media (23.33 million), transportation and logistics (52.61 million), utilities (26.42 million), and business trusts (1,000).