Bursa ends at intraday high amid renewed bargain-hunting
Bursa Malaysia closed higher on Monday, settling at its intraday high on renewed bargain-hunting activity after last week’s lacklustre trading, in line with the upbeat performance across regional markets.
Rakuten Trade Sdn Bhd vice-president of equity research Thong Pak Leng said regional markets also advanced, supported by optimism over the US-China trade truce and continued enthusiasm for artificial intelligence-related investments, which helped maintain a healthy risk appetite.
“At the same time, investors remain attentive to key developments, including last week’s US central bank meeting and the US-China agreement on a year-long trade truce, which broadly met expectations,” he told Bernama.
On the local bourse, Thong noted that the index continues to hold well above key support levels seen in recent weeks, indicating that investor sentiment remains resilient despite lingering global uncertainties, and renewed buying interest, particularly in select blue-chips, helped to lift the overall market tone.
Meanwhile, IPPFA Sdn Bhd director of investment strategy and country economist Sedek Jantan said banking stocks led the gains among the FTSE Bursa Malaysia KLCI (FBM KLCI) components, supported by “delayed rate cut” optimism following the US Federal Reserve’s policy easing last week and expectations of stable domestic monetary settings.
“We maintain our view that Bank Negara Malaysia will leave the overnight policy rate unchanged at the upcoming Monetary Policy Committee meeting, balancing the need to sustain growth while preserving monetary space amid heightened external uncertainty,” he said.
At 5pm, the FBM KLCI rose 13.27 points, or 0.82%, to 1,622.42 from Friday’s close of 1,609.15.
The benchmark index opened 1.64 points firmer at 1,610.79 and hit a low of 1,608.85 in the early trading session before gaining momentum for the rest of the day.
Market breadth was negative with 762 losers outpacing 450 gainers, while 520 counters were unchanged, 905 untraded, and 13 suspended.
Turnover slid to 3.25 billion units worth RM2.48 billion compared with 3.55 billion units worth RM2.68 billion last Friday.
Among heavyweights, Maybank advanced eight sen to RM9.95, Public Bank added two sen to RM4.24, CIMB Group jumped 12 sen to RM7.42, Tenaga Nasional improved six sen to RM13.34, and IHH Healthcare rose 10 sen to RM8.35.
On the most active list, Genting Malaysia perked up one sen to RM2.34, and Dagang NeXchange gained 2.5 sen to 33 sen. Meanwhile, Perak Transit and Zetrix AI eased three sen each to 31 sen and 81.5 sen respectively, and MMAG Holdings tumbled 27.5 sen to 18.5 sen.
For top gainers, Malaysian Pacific surged RM1 to RM31, Hong Leong Bank jumped 36 sen to RM20.92, Allianz Malaysia climbed 34 sen to RM18.30, while Hong Leong Industries and Dutch Lady advanced 30 sen each to RM14.06 and RM26.50 respectively.
Among top losers, Fraser & Neave slipped 24 sen to RM27.92, Perak Corporation declined 19.5 sen to 75 sen, Pentamaster Corporation slid 19 sen to RM4.10, and Petronas Dagangan dipped 16 sen to RM22.52.
Meanwhile, Bursa Malaysia Securities Bhd has issued an unusual market activity query to MMAG today following the sharp fall in the price of its shares.
It has also suspended the intraday short-selling (IDSS) for the stock after its last done price dropped by more than 15% or 15 sen from the reference price. The short selling under IDSS will be activated on Nov 4 at 8.30 am.
On the index board, the FBM Emas Index rose 59.64 points to 12,083.00, the FBMT 100 Index garnered 67.39 points to 11,828.56 and the FBM Emas Shariah Index gained 36.98 points to 12,135.10.
The FBM 70 Index slid 30.43 points to 17,025.64 and the FBM ACE Index slipped 49.62 points to 5,171.77.
By sector, the financial services index jumped 186.40 points to 18,309.66, the plantation index surged 65.09 points to 8,052.18, the energy index edged up 2.15 points to 773.39, and the industrial products and services index inched up 0.78 of-a-point to 172.39.
The Main Market volume shrank to 1.7 billion units valued at RM2.2 billion from 1.88 billion units valued at RM2.4 billion last Friday.
Warrants turnover dipped to 1.05 billion units worth RM131.14 million compared with 1.28 billion units worth RM123.62 million previously.
The ACE Market volume expanded to 490.56 million units valued at RM144.1 million from 381.42 million units valued at RM155.65 million last Friday.
Consumer products and services counters accounted for 409.18 million shares traded on the Main Market, industrial products and services (273.41 million), construction (124.85 million), technology (363.04 million), financial services (61.7 million), property (159.98 million), plantation (28.71 million), real estate investment trusts (23.30 million), closed-end fund (16,500), energy (81.37 million), healthcare (70.75 million), telecommunications and media (44.78 million), transportation and logistics (26.30 million), utilities (37.37 million), and business trusts (128,900).
