KUALA LUMPUR, June 12 (Bernama) -- Selected blue-chip counters trading at attractive valuations helped Bursa Malaysia close higher on Friday, despite cautious market sentiment driven by developments in West Asia, volatility in crude oil prices and uncertainty over the global interest rate outlook. At 5 pm, the FTSE Bursa Malaysia KLCI (FBM KLCI) rose by 4.10 points or 0.24 per cent to 1,683.63 compared with Thursday's close of 1,679.53. The key index opened 5.34 points stronger at 1,684.87 earlier today and moved between 1,679.72 and 1,685.39 throughout the session. Market breadth was negative, with losers leading gainers 533 to 479, while 561 counters were unchanged, 1,130 untraded and 33 suspended. Turnover fell to 2.79 billion units worth RM2.31 billion from 3.32 billion units worth RM2.88 billion yesterday.
KUALA LUMPUR (May 14): The FBM KLCI closed 0.12 point or 0.01% higher at 1,397.25 after erasing losses in the final trading hour, while Bursa Malaysia’s index for small market capitalisation (small cap) stocks fell 1.07% as concerns over a second wave of Covid-19 infections drove global market sentiment. Analysts also expected Malaysia’s current corporate financial reporting season to affect local equity market sentiment.
At 5pm, the KLCI closed higher after trading in negative territory for most of the trading session today. The index had earlier fallen to its intraday low of 1,388.80 points.
The Small Cap Index closed down 123.95 points or 1.07% at 11,419.56.
“Moving forward, investors will brace [themselves] for a barrage of corporate earnings releases, albeit some companies have opted for deferment of the release of their financial performance,” Malacca Securities Sdn Bhd senior analyst Kenneth Leong told theedgemarkets.com Leong said buying support for selected index-linked stocks at the 11th hour nudged the 30-company index up to close in positive territory.
Across Bursa, the exchange saw 7.01 billion securities worth RM4.04 billion traded. Decliners led gainers by 616 to 345 as KLCI-linked rubber glove manufacturers Top Glove Corp Bhd and Hartalega Holdings Bhd ended among the top gainers.
Top Glove’s share price closed 99 sen or 10.63% higher at RM10.30, while Hartalega rose 33 sen or 3.72% to RM9.19, as concerns over the second wave of Covid-19 infections led to expectations of higher demand for rubber gloves.
Globally, it was reported that stock markets fell and bonds were in demand today as worries grew about the second wave of the pandemic and a dour assessment by the head of the US Federal Reserve (Fed) dashed hopes for a quick economic recovery.
Reuters reported that Fed chair Jerome Powell had warned of a recession worse than any since World War II, and called for additional fiscal spending to stem the fallout from the pandemic.
It was reported that new outbreaks in South Korea and China were a cause for concern even as more countries began to reopen their economies after lengthy lockdowns.
Source: The Edge
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