Malaysian Stock Market Reverses Losses To Close Higher

KUALA LUMPUR, March 12 (Bernama) -- A rally on the Dow Jones Industrial Average prompted bullish performances across global stock markets on Tuesday, including the Malaysian stock market (Bursa Malaysia), which reversed its losses from Monday, with the benchmark FTSE Bursa Malaysia KLCI index gaining 6.65 points to 1,671.28. The index eased 0.91 per cent or 15.27 points to finish at 1,664.63 points yesterday. Inter-Pacific Securities Sdn Bhd research head Pong Teng Siew said the local bourse was mechanically tracking Dow Jones' performance which rebounded following the rise in oil prices. “Bursa Malaysia and other stock markets will continue to go up, unless the news on international market, global economy or major economies get progressively worse, then only it will turn bearish,” he told Bernama. The benchmark index opened 3.33 points better at 1,667.96 and moved between 1,666.84 and 1,672.94 throughout the day. On the scoreboard, market breadth was positive with 523 gainers to 346 losers while 405 counters remained unchanged, 630 untraded and 20 others were suspended. Volume jumped to 3.02 billion units, valued at RM2.10 billion, from 2.54 billion units, worth RM2.32 billion on Monday. Pong also said investors shrugged off news on the weak US jobs data and China's export data. Commenting on the Bloomberg report, which disclosed that Bursa Malaysia was the only stock exchange in the region that fell in aggregate in the year to date, he said weak corporate earnings recorded between November and December 2019 resulted in the poor performance of the bourse. “In went up slightly higher after that but when the reporting season saw financial reports remaining unattractive, the composite index fell again,” he explained. The Singapore’s Strait Times improved four per cent this year and the Indonesia Stock Exchange is up three per cent, the FBM KLCI lost over one per cent. Among heavyweights, Maybank, PBBank and Tenaga gained two sen each to RM9.49, RM24.40 and RM12.64, respectively, PChem advanced six sen to RM9.26 but IHH shed one sen to RM5.85. Of actives, Sapnrg improved one sen to 32.5 sen, Velesto and Armada each added 2.5 sen to 30.5 sen and 19 sen, respectively, MyEG was six sen better at RM1.29 and PresBhd increased four sen to 56.5 sen. -- BERNAMA