KUALA LUMPUR, Sept 8 (Bernama) -- Bursa Malaysia closed almost flat on Tuesday as buying interest rotated away from index heavyweights towards smaller-cap construction stocks, with sentiment affected by geopolitical uncertainty, said an analyst. At 5 pm, the FTSE Bursa Malaysia KLCI (FBM KLCI) eased 0.39 of a point to 1,714.40 from Monday’s close of 1,714.79. The benchmark index opened 1.65 points lower at 1,713.14 and moved between 1,710.44 and 1,714.50 throughout the trading session. The broader market was almost evenly balanced, with decliners leading gainers 548 to 546, while 598 counters were unchanged, 1,107 were untraded and 25 were suspended. Turnover expanded to 4.13 billion units valued at RM3.14 billion from 3.60 billion units valued at RM2.45 billion on Monday.
KUALA LUMPUR (July 19): The FBM KLCI gained 6.17 points or 0.35% after foreign investors became net buyers of Malaysian shares and as Bursa Malaysia construction stocks rose.
Bursa Malaysia construction stocks rose after Prime Minister Tun Dr Mahathir Mohamad said today Malaysia will defer the planned Kuala Lumpur-Singapore High Speed Rail (HSR) instead of unilaterally cancelling the project.
At 5pm, the KLCI closed at 1,759.24 points. Bursa Malaysia's construction index gained 10.14 points or 4.87% to 218.43 points.
“If you look at the trade today, the construction sector has been doing very well. News reports talked about the likelihood of a return of the Kuala Lumpur-Singapore HSR project,” Rakuten Trade Sdn Bhd vice president of research Vincent Lau told theegemarkets.com over telephone.
The selldown of Malaysian shares by foreign investors has toned down recently. Lau said today foreign investors turned into net buyers of Malaysian shares for the first time in July 2018 yesterday.
Today, Malaysia's construction sector and foreign investor sentiment led to a notable rise in share-trade volume and value across Bursa Malaysia. A total of 3.49 billion shares worth RM3.03 billion were traded. Yesterday, the bourse saw 2.63 billion shares transacted for RM2.18 billion.
Today, Bursa Malaysia top gainers included Malayan Banking Bhd and Iskandar Waterfront City Bhd (IWCity). IWCity rose 17.5 sen to 74.5 sen with about 134 million shares traded to close among Bursa Malaysia's most-active counters.
Source: The Edge

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