Malaysian Stock Market Recovers As Selling Pressure Eases

By Rosemarie Khoo Mohd Sani KUALA LUMPUR, Aug 14 (Bernama) – The Malaysian stock market (Bursa Malaysia) rebounded to close marginally higher on Tuesday, lifted by buying in selected blue chips, after experiencing heavy selling pressure on Monday. At 5 pm, the benchmark FTSE Bursa Malaysia KLCI (FBM KLCI) was firmer at 1,783.78, up 0.44 of-a-point or 0.025 per cent, from Monday's close of 1,783.34. The index opened 3.55 points lower at 1,779.79 and moved between 1,778.20 and 1,788.34 throughout the day. Market breadth was positive with gainers outpacing losers 520 to 374 while 420 were unchanged, 569 untraded and 20 others suspended. Volume improved to 2.31 billion units valued at RM2.47 billion, from 2.06 billion units worth RM2.21 billion, transacted on Monday. M&A Securities Sdn Bhd Chief Dealing Officer R Sundararajah said the index’s positive closing was amid the mixed performance in regional peers as the market had overcome panic-selling due to geopolitical concern in Turkey which began last week. "The contagion from the economic crisis in Turkey remained relatively contained in developed markets and we should see more positive developments very soon with the hope that the index will move back to where it was...at 1,800 level," he told Bernama. Of the heavyweights, Maybank eased eight sen to RM9.80, Public Bank rose two sen to RM24.40, Tenaga was up by 10 sen to RM15.66 and Petronas Chemicals rose one sen to RM9.10. CIMB lost four sen to RM5.85 and IHH slipped four sen to RM5.41. As for active stocks, Frontken and Sapura Energy rose one sen each to 75 sen 59 sen, respectively, while Foundpac added two sen to 44.5 sen. Top gainers, BAT gained 98 sen to RM35.76, Vitrox put on 32 sen to RM7.65 and Dufu was 22 sen better at RM1.95. The FBM Emas Index increased 13.93 points to 12,628.77, the FBM Emas Shariah Index was 29.79 points higher at 12,787.40 and the FBM Ace Index improved 73.18 points to 5,537.66. The FBMT 100 Index bagged 8.14 points to 12,400.49 and the FBM 70 was up 28.99 points to 15,430.58. Sector-wise, the Finance Index slipped 56.35 points to 17,441.77 and the Industrial Index slid 8.16 points to 3,234.51 but the Plantation Index was 32.03 points firmer at 7,642.40. -- BERNAMA