Bursa closes higher as attractive valuations drive buying

KUALA LUMPUR: 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.

Rakuten Trade Sdn Bhd vice-president of equity research Thong Pak Leng said the FTSE Bursa Malaysia KLCI (FBM KLCI) moved in a tight range and closed marginally higher on low volume as regional equities ended mostly higher, supported by optimism surrounding potential progress in the US-Iran relations and a rebound in technology and chipmaking stocks.

“On the domestic front, trading activity remained subdued as investors stayed on the sidelines amid persistent foreign selling and a lack of strong market catalysts.

“At the same time, attractive valuations in selected blue-chip counters may continue to encourage bargain-hunting and provide support to the broader market,” he told Bernama.

At 5pm, the FBM KLCI rose by 4.10 points or 0.24% to 1,683.63 compared with yesterday’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.

Among the heavyweight counters, Maybank added six sen to RM10.72, Public Bank was up five sen to RM4.83, Tenaga Nasional gained 12 sen to RM14.42, CIMB was nine sen better at RM7.39 and IHH Healthcare climbed 11 sen to RM8.78.

Among the active stocks, Zetrix AI was flat at 81 sen, Top Glove was 2.5 sen lower at 80.5 sen, AirAsia X added six sen to RM1.20, Capital A was unchanged at 40 sen, and Dagang NeXchange perked up 1.5 sen to 36 sen.

Of the top gainers, Nestle put on RM1.10 to RM95.60, Fraser & Neave garnered 94 sen to RM26.74, Ajinomoto improved 58 sen to RM15.30 and Petronas Dagangan rose 48 sen to RM18.20.

Among the top losers, Paragon Union plunged RM1.39 to RM3.27, Batu Kawan tumbled 96 sen to RM19.84, and Petronas Chemicals slid 46 sen to RM5.34, while Unisem and Kuala Lumpur Kepong slipped 18 sen each to RM4.60 and RM20.76, respectively.

On the index board, the FBM Emas Index increased by 21.02 points to 12,474.62, the FBM Top 100 Index advanced 17.51 points to 12,315.94, and the FBM Emas Shariah Index fell 21.44 points to 12,422.30.

The FBM Mid 70 Index lost 28.27 points to 17,884.14 and the FBM ACE Index slipped 3.09 points to 4,668.67.

By sector, the financial services index jumped 140.69 points to 19,644.36, the industrial products and services index eased 1.55 points to 196.93, the energy index shed 9.49 points to 775.37, and the plantation index dipped 53.75 points to 8,752.08.

The Main Market’s volume narrowed to 1.45 billion units valued at RM2.02 billion from 1.68 billion units valued at RM2.53 billion yesterday.

Warrants turnover dwindled to 888.91 million units valued at RM129.37 million from 1.07 billion units valued at RM172.98 million previously.

The ACE Market volume declined to 447.1 million units worth RM160.05 million from 562.41 million units worth RM177.14 million.

Consumer products and services counters accounted for 206.68 million shares traded on the Main Market, industrial products and services (350.69 million), construction (91.65 million), technology (285.15 million), financial services (47.93 million), property (125.43 million), plantation (19.25 million), real estate investment trusts (28.27 million), closed-end fund (21,800), energy (97.91 million), healthcare (105.85 million), telecommunications and media (33.68 million), transportation and logistics (28.33 million), utilities (35.18 million) and business trusts (12,100).