Bursa Malaysia stages recovery, CI soars 2.04 pct at midday

KUALA LUMPUR: Bursa Malaysia staged a recovery from yesterday's global stock rout with the key index in the positive territory at lunch break today as the overall selling pressure has been well digested, at least for the near term, although there might be margin calls happening later this week, a dealer said.

At 12.30 pm, the FTSE Bursa Malaysia KLCI (FBM KLCI) surged 31.43 points, or 2.04 per cent, to 1,567.91 from Monday's close of 1,536.48.

The FBM KLCI opened 5.66 points higher at 1,542.14, and moved between 1,529.09 and 1,568.70 during the morning session.

On the broader market, advancers surpassed gainers 974 to 307, while 353 counters were unchanged, 771 untraded, and seven others suspended.

Total turnover amounted to 3.93 billion units valued at RM2.89 billion

According to Malacca Securities Sdn Bhd, the strongest rebound may occur within large-cap stocks in the most lagging sectors yesterday, namely technology, property, and construction, whereby the catalysts are still revolving around data centres.

"Additionally, the finance segment might be attractive for investors to pick up once foreign funds return," it said in a note today.

Commenting on Wall Street's slump, the brokerage firm believed that the market could have fallen to a more acceptable level, and an accumulation phase may emerge in the near term.

"Currently, global futures are rebounding around one per cent," it said.

Among the heavyweights, Maybank and CIMB rose 16 sen each to RM10.06 and RM7.17 respectively, Public Bank added three sen to RM4.16, Tenaga Nasional gained 48 sen to RM13.64, and IHH Healthcare perked up 12 sen to RM6.19.

Of the actives, Cape EMS shed seven sen to 49.5 sen, Jiankun eased 1.5 sen to 9.5 sen, MY E.G and WCT climbed five sen each to 87.5 sen and RM1.03 respectively, while Pegasus Heights was flat at one sen.

On the index board, the FBM Emas Index jumped 273.55 points to 11,879.45, the FBMT 100 Index garnered 266.81 points to 11,539.17, the FBM Emas Shariah Index bagged 324.72 points to 11,993.59, the FBM 70 Index surged 526.88 points to 17,103.78, and the FBM ACE Index expanded 137.43 points to 5,092.51.

Sector-wise, the Technology Index advanced 2.0 points to 66.81, the Property Index ticked up 49.52 points to 1,029.66, the Construction Index rose 11.01 points to 270.37, the Plantation Index climbed 97.43 points to 6,986.07, the Industrial Products and Services Index was 5.21 points better at 176.34, and the Financial Services Index increased 236.61 points to 17,783.37.

-- BERNAMA