Malaysia's Stock Market Rebounds To End Higher

KUALA LUMPUR, Oct 27 (Bernama) -- The Malaysian stock market (Bursa Malaysia) rebounded to end higher Friday on persistent buying on heavyweight stocks, following positive sentiment brought by the 2018 Budget announcement today, and in tracking the firm performance of regional peers, dealers said. At 5pm, the benchmark FTSE Bursa Malaysia KLCI (FBM KLCI) rose 9.33 points to end at 1,746.13 compared with Thursday's close of 1,736.80. After opening 4.54 points better at 1,741.34 in the morning, the index moved between 1,739.89 and 1,751.50 throughout the day. Market breadth, was positive as gainers outpaced losers by 511 to 344, with 399 counters unchanged, 621 untraded and 106 others suspended. Volume rose to 2.76 billion worth RM2.66 billion from 2.53 billion units worth RM2.13 billion on Thursday. A dealer said the local bourse also rebounded on a firm note throughout the trading session on persistent buying in heavyweight stocks. “Bursa Malaysia’s performance was also in line with major Asian bourses which continued their gains on Friday, boosted by technology shares, while taking cue from the upbeat earnings of US hi-tech giants, and as the euro hovered near a three-month low against the dollar after the European Central Bank extended its stimulus,” he added. Regionally, Japan's Nikkei 225 rose 1.24 per cent to 22,008.45, Hong Kong's Hang Seng gained 0.84 per cent to 28,438.43, South Korea's Kospi added 0.64 per cent to 2,496.63, the Singapore Straits Times index gained 0.69 per cent to 3,379.46 and the Shanghai Stock Exchange bagged 0.27 per cent to 3,416.82. Of the heavyweights, TNB surged 62 sen to RM14.96, Sime Darby added nine sen to RM9.17, Petronas Chemicals eased two sen each to RM7.38, Maybank slid one sen to RM9.23, while Public Bank was flat at RM20.48. Among active counters, UMW Oil & Gas warrant added two sen to 16.5 sen, Hubline and Sino Hua-An edged up half-a-sen to 18.5 sen and 23.5 sen respectively, GPA Holdings warrant eased half-a-sen to 4.5 sen, while APFT was flat at three sen. -- BERNAMA