Thursday 28 Mar 2024
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KUALA LUMPUR (Dec 3): The main index of Bursa Malaysia pared some of its gains before the midday break today but remained above the 1,600-point threshold as index-linked stocks held firm.

At 12.30pm, the FBM KLCI was up 12.34 points at 1,611.06. The index earlier rose to a high of 1,616.62.

Gainers led losers by 477 to 300, while 814 counters traded unchanged. Trading volume was 6.64 billion shares valued at RM3.18 billion.

The top gainers included Carlsberg Brewery Malaysia Bhd, British American Tobacco (Malaysia) Bhd, Nestle (Malaysia) Bhd, UWC Bhd, Euro Holdings Bhd, Malaysian Pacific Industries Bhd, Hengyuan Refining Company Bhd, Hong Leong Financial Group Bhd, ViTrox Corp Bhd and Hartalega Holdings Bhd.

The actively traded stocks included Bintai Kinden Corp Bhd, Yong Tai Bhd, Kanger International Bhd, Trive Property Group Bhd, Sapura Energy Bhd and KNM Group Bhd.

The decliners included Kuala Lumpur Kepong Bhd, Petronas Gas Bhd, AEON Credit Service (M) Bhd, Lii Hen Industries Bhd, Ayer Holdings Bhd and FACB Industries Incorporated Bhd.

Reuters said Asian shares were mixed today after a choppy day of Wall Street trade overnight, thanks in part to a disappointing US jobs report, while the greenback languished near a two-and-a-half year low on growing optimism about a coronavirus vaccine.

Britain became the first Western country to approve a Covid-19 vaccine, with 800,000 doses of the Pfizer and BioNTech vaccine available for those at high risk starting next week, it said.

Hong Leong Investment Bank (HLIB) Research said overall, it remained optimistic that the KLCI could still break the critical year-to-date (YTD) high of 1,618.7, taking its cue from the vaccine optimism, traditional December window dressing (an average +3.8% return in the month from 1990 to 2019, with a 87% successful hit rate) and continued shift from predominantly pandemic-themed to recovery-focused beneficiaries, given that investors had been looking for opportunities to increase risk-on exposure.

“Nevertheless, the KLCI could still engage in a wild swing mode (the 1,555-1,618 zones) due to risk of CMCO 2.0's (the second conditional movement control order) impact on our economy amid elevated Covid-19 cases and clusters,” it said.

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