KUALA LUMPUR (Dec 1): The main index of Bursa Malaysia bounced back to rise 2.2% in the mid-morning today as bargain hunting for the stocks that fell yesterday lifted the index in line with regional gains.

At 10am, the FBM KLCI had jumped 34.90 points to 1,597.41.

Market breadth was positive with 556 gainers and 316 losers, while 432 counters traded unchanged. Trading volume was 2.34 billion shares valued at  RM1.16 billion.

The top gainers included Nestle (Malaysia) Bhd, Hong Leong Bank Bhd (HLB), Tenaga Nasional Bhd (TNB), Public Bank Bhd, AEON Credit Service (M) Bhd, Carlsberg Brewery Malaysia Bhd, Malaysian Pacific Industries Bhd, Petronas Chemicals Group Bhd and Malayan Banking Bhd (Maybank).  

The actively traded stocks included AT Systematization Bhd, Metronic Global Bhd, Iris Corp Bhd, Hiap Teck Venture Bhd, EA Holdings Bhd, Kanger International Bhd, Vivocom Intl Holdings Bhd and Vortex Consolidated Bhd.

The decliners included Petronas Gas Bhd, PPB Group Bhd, GETS Global Bhd, Kuala Lumpur Kepong Bhd (KLK), Pentamaster Corp Bhd, Vivocom, Supermax Corp Bhd and UMW Holdings Bhd.

Bloomberg said Asian stocks and US futures traded higher today as investors shrugged off an overnight slide in equities and once again embraced risk assets after an unprecedented month of gains.

The US dollar dipped, it said.

Inter-Pacific Research Sdn Bhd said key index stocks lost significant ground yesterday in what was seen as portfolio realignment/profit taking on stocks that made headway over the past month, bringing back the key index to its lowest level in three weeks.

The research house said although the selling was mostly confined to banking heavyweights, other index heavyweights also succumbed to renewed foreign selling that was also prevalent in regional equity markets.

It said the lower liners and broader market shares, however, mostly bucked the weakness and remained well supported.

Inter-Pacific said despite the steeper-than-expected retreat, it was of the opinion that overall market sentiments were improving, riding on the positives of the Covid-19 vaccines that could soon be available and the worst of the pandemic's effects on the global economy was largely over.

“Therefore, we view yesterday’s pullback as just profit-taking actions after a sterling November month that saw the key index gaining as much as 11.5% during the month.

“Following yesterday’s steep fall, however, we think that there could be bouts of bargain-hunting actions that could help to provide some lift to the market at the start of the new month.

“Although there would still be some tentativeness early on, we think the gains could be decent, which could help the KLCI to bounce back to around the 1,575-1,580 levels.

“The other resistance is the 1,590 level, while the support [levels] are at 1,550 and 1,540 respectively,” it said.