Kuala lumpur: Bursa Malaysia concluded the week on an uptrend, with the benchmark index reaching a more than six-year high due to the continued buying of blue-chip stocks. This performance aligned with stronger regional markets.
According to BERNAMA News Agency, at 5 pm, the FTSE Bursa Malaysia KLCI (FBM KLCI) surged 16.97 points, or 1.02 percent, to end at an intraday high of 1,686.54, up from Thursday’s close of 1,669.57. A similar level was last seen at 1,686.95 on March 7, 2019. The benchmark opened 0.87 points higher at 1,670.44 and hit an intraday low of 1,670.28 earlier.
On the broader market, gainers outpaced losers by 616 to 469, while 581 counters remained unchanged, 983 were untraded, and 24 were suspended. Turnover was higher at 2.83 billion units worth RM2.75 billion compared to Thursday’s 2.79 billion units worth RM2.84 billion.
Rakuten Trade Sdn Bhd’s vice-president of equity research, Thong Pak Leng, stated that the brokerage remained constructive on the benchmark index’s near-term prospects as upward momentum continues to build. He emphasized that the FBM KLCI is still in a healthy uptrend across short- to long-term timeframes, with supportive market momentum and recent pullbacks appearing to be healthy consolidations rather than signs of trend reversal.
Among heavyweight counters, Maybank rose 22 sen to RM10.86, Public Bank and CIMB gained nine sen each to RM4.58 and RM8.15, respectively. Press Metal increased by 12 sen to RM7.20, while TNB remained flat at RM13.56, and IHH Healthcare decreased by one sen to RM8.53.
In the most active stocks, Zetrix AI rose 1.5 sen to 83 sen, VS Industry increased by one sen to 49 sen, CBH Engineering advanced two sen to 61.5 sen, Tanco remained at RM1.23, and MMAG decreased by half-a-sen to 6.5 sen.
Top gainers included Malaysian Pacific Industries, which increased by 90 sen to RM33.30. Hong Leong Bank advanced by 42 sen to RM23.06, while Vitrox and Hong Leong Financial Group gained 38 sen each to RM4.69 and RM19.74, respectively.
Among the decliners, Malayan Cement dropped 15 sen to RM7.95, Panasonic fell 13 sen to RM7.33, and Hume Cement declined by 11 sen to RM3.48. Master-Pack and Atlan each decreased by 10 sen to RM1.90 and RM2.80, respectively.
On the index board, the FBM Emas Index decreased by 10.68 points to 12,349.42, while the FBM Top 100 Index slipped 15.20 points to 12,136.75. The FBM Emas Shariah Index increased slightly by 0.29 of-a-point to 12,167.04. The FBM Mid 70 Index rose by 146.38 points to 17,319.58, and the FBM ACE Index climbed 17.90 points to 4,982.21.
Sector-wise, the Financial Services Index fell by 34.46 points to 19,739.73. Meanwhile, the Energy Index edged up by 0.66 of-a-point to 770.31, the Plantation Index increased by 39.76 points to 8,437.70, and the Industrial Products and Services Index decreased by 0.56 of-a-point to 171.90.
The Main Market volume was slightly higher at 1.54 billion units worth RM2.45 billion from Thursday’s 1.53 billion units worth RM2.51 billion. Warrants turnover slightly decreased to 804.62 million units worth RM101.94 million from 809.94 million units worth RM111.36 million the previous day. The ACE Market volume expanded to 485.58 million units worth RM192.54 million from 458.51 million units worth RM216.69 million.
Consumer products and services counters accounted for 211.43 million shares traded on the Main Market, followed by industrial products and services (300.05 million), construction (109.45 million), technology (315.59 million), financial services (112.01 million), property (171.81 million), plantation (26.32 million), real estate investment trusts (149.38 million), closed-end fund (20,300), energy (93.37 million), healthcare (79.56 million), telecommunications and media (23.33 million), transportation and logistics (52.61 million), utilities (26.42 million), and business trusts (1,000).
