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.
Chinese tech stocks have surged over the past few weeks following the announcement of a stimulus spree by the Chinese government, with the Hang Seng Tech Index rising more than 45% in less than four weeks . Notably, this rally appears to be fueled by fresh buying rather than short covering , according to S3 Partners and JPMorgan Chase & Co. . Major companies such as Alibaba Group Holding Ltd. , JD.com Inc. , and Baidu Inc. have seen their American Depositary Receipts (ADRs) rally, but short positions on these stocks have remained stable . Short interest for these companies has hovered around 2% to 3% of available shares , according to Ihor Dusaniwsky , managing director of predictive analytics at S3. This lack of aggressive short covering indicates that bearish bets have not been significantly closed despite the strong rally. Fund managers, such as Han Piow Liew from Maitri Asset Management , noted that the magnitude of the recent bounce usually forces shorts to cover their...