On Thursday, Bursa Malaysia Bhd chief executive officer Fad’l Mohamed said the exchange’s closure and transparency standards remain strong, adding that initial public offerings (IPOs) with a free float below 25% have not raised material concerns for MSCI.
Rakuten Trade Sdn Bhd vice-president of equity research Thong Pak Leng said Bursa Malaysia has reiterated that local free-float levels remain within set parameters and pose no systemic risks under MSCI requirements.
“The FBM KLCI declined further to around the 1,730 mark on Thursday. We note the selling may have been overdone, exacerbated by concerns from the sell-off in Indonesia regarding free floats among listed companies,” he told Bernama.
Thong expects a rebound soon, with the index likely to hover between 1,730 and 1,750 today.
At 9.10am, the FTSE Bursa Malaysia KLCI (FBM KLCI) rose 7.24 points to 1,738.13, after opening 1.73 points higher at 1,732.62, compared with Thursday’s close of 1,730.89.
On the broader market, gainers led losers 190 to 168, while 303 counters were unchanged. A total of 2,029 counters were untraded and 61 suspended.
Market turnover stood at 171.43 million shares valued at RM114.85 million.
Among heavyweights, Maybank and CIMB rose 10 sen to RM11.74 and RM8.57, respectively. Public Bank gained 5 sen to RM4.90, Tenaga Nasional slipped 4 sen to RM13.96, while IHH Healthcare was flat at RM8.86.
On the most active list, Dagang NeXchange fell 1.5 sen to 30.5 sen, Pharmaniaga rose 0.5 sen to 29 sen, SP Setia climbed 3.5 sen to RM1.01, and Capital A was flat at 63.5 sen.
Top gainers included Hong Leong Bank, up 28 sen to RM24.60; Hong Leong Industries, up 12 sen to RM17.00; Frontken Corporation, up eight sen to RM3.93; and Hibiscus Petroleum, up six sen to RM1.55.
Leading decliners were Hong Leong Financial Group, down 30 sen to RM21.40; Allianz Malaysia, down 28 sen to RM22.74; New Hoong Fatt Holdings, down five sen to RM1.56; and Azam Jaya, down 4.5 sen to 95 sen.
On the index board, the FBM Top 100 Index rose 52.03 points to 12,551.87, the FBM Emas Index recovered 50.78 points to 12,742.28, the FBM Emas Shariah Index gained 24.10 points to 12,302.33, the FBM ACE Index added 7.95 points to 4,751.73, and the FBM Mid 70 Index climbed 71.87 points to 17,539.30.
Sector-wise, the financial services index surged 150.73 points to 21,287.07, the industrial products and services index edged up 0.23 of-a-point to 176.37, the plantation index climbed 10.72 points to 8,375.70, and the energy index rose 8.57 points to 761.63.