Bursa Malaysia further recovers amid bargain-hunting

At 9.10 am, the benchmark FTSE Bursa Malaysia KLCI (FBM KLCI) increased 9.91 points to 1,62249 with gains almost across the board.

The index opened 5.64 points higher at 1,617.68 from 1,612.04 yesterday.

On the broader market, gainers trounced losers 377 to 173, while 299 counters were unchanged, 1,250 untraded and 11 others suspended.

Total volume stood at 538.49 million units worth RM295.59 million.

Malacca Securities reckons that the local bourse should find stability soon as some bargain-hunting activities were noticed in the market.

"The lower liners may extend yesterday's gains as the rise in the indexes was supported by rising trading volume throughout the day," it said in a note today.

It also believes investors are likely to participate within the healthcare sector, which sees earning certainties amid rising COVID-19 cases.

Besides, the transportation and logistics counters should be in the limelight due to further lockdownmeasures imposed starting today until Jan 26 to curb the spread of COVID-19, it added.

The domestic market's panic selling receded after Prime Minister Tan Sri Muhyiddin Yassin assured that business activities will remain as usual despite the declaration of a nationwide state of emergency yesterday.

Meanwhile, a lead from Wall Street was flat after the US stock markets finished mildly higher.

The Dow climbed 0.2 per cent on a choppy trading session as investors shifted their attention to the prospects of economic recovery and with the vaccine rollout.

In addition, supplies cuts had pushed crude oil prices higher with the Brent crude now hovering above the US$56 per barrel again.

The banking counters led the way among heavyweights with Maybank and Public Bank rebounded from yesterday's selling, adding six sen to RM8.06 and 62 sen to RM20.70, respectively.

TNB went up 12 sen to RM10.24 and PetChem was flat at RM7.20.

Top Glove rose two sen to RM6.70 but Hartalega declined four sen to RM13.10.

Of the actives, Sealink added 2.5 sen to 18.5 sen, XOX was unchanged at 11.5 sen and Sapura Energy edged up half-a-sen at 12.5 sen.

On the index board, the FBM Emas Index gained 69.55 points to 11,621.61, the FBMT 100 Index expanded 69.02 points to 11,369.26, and the FBM Emas Shariah Index was 37.48 points higher at 13,197.31.

The FBM 70 rose 71.91 points to 14,581.50 and the FBM ACE improved 58.73 points to 10,562.22.

Sector-wise, the Financial Services Index rebounded 174.65 points to 14,721.16, the Industrial Products and Services Index up 0.26 of-a-point to 173.22 and the Plantation Index rose 2.60 points to 7,465044.