KUALA LUMPUR, July 29 (Bernama) -- Bursa Malaysia rebounded to close higher on Wednesday on selective buying of defensive stocks after a volatile trading session. IPPFA Sdn Bhd director of investment strategy and country economist Mohd Sedek Jantan said consumer products and services stocks lifted the key index higher, overcoming lingering geopolitical concerns. At 5 pm, the FTSE Bursa Malaysia KLCI (FBM KLCI) rose 3.08 points to 1,715.56 from yesterday’s close of 1,712.48. The benchmark index, which opened 1.91 points higher at 1,714.39, moved between 1,710.79 and 1,720.59 during the day’s trading. In the broader market, gainers outstripped decliners 550 to 476, while 612 counters were unchanged, 1,129 untraded, and 48 suspended. Turnover rose to 2.96 billion units valued at RM2.48 billion from 2.94 billion units valued at RM2.56 billion on Tuesday.
As the goods and service tax (GST) is officially implemented in Malaysia 2014, most Malaysians will finally have to pay tax from all income level. Paying more taxes definitely not good news for almost everywhere through out the world, but there is very small good news to the income tax payers, whereas the income tax rate for the year 2015 will be reduced by few points basis. The winner again, will be the high income earner - which is those who are earning RM400K and above because their rate drop although they might still argue that they will pay a lot more in the form of GST. The following is the comparison of the income tax rate before the GST implementation vs the post-GST.