KUALA LUMPUR (April 15): The FBM KLCI finished up 0.62% today despite pervasive negative sentiment, while the Healthcare Index continued to rise, as growing cases of Covid-19 globally fuelled buying of stocks in glove manufacturers.

At 5pm, the benchmark index closed at its day’s high of 1,608.25 points, up by 9.97 points from yesterday's closing of 1,598.78 points.

The market breadth, however, was negative with losers 801 losers versus 323 gainers, while 427 counters remained unchanged.  Across Bursa Malaysia, trading volume stood at 6.49 billion securities, compared with 5.91 billion shares traded yesterday. Meanwhile, trading value increased by 58% to RM4.71 billion versus RM2.99 billion.

KLCI constituents Supermax Corp Bhd, Top Glove Corp Bhd and Hartalega Holdings Bhd were among Bursa’s top gainers by value today.

The three counters are also members of Bursa's Healthcare index, which rose the most in percentage terms among bourse gauges, settling up 101.77 points or 3.34% at 3,146.94.

Notable gainers also included Nestle (M) Bhd,  Press Metal Aluminium Holdings Bhd and Petronas Dagangan Bhd.

Rakuten Trade head of equity sales Vincent Lau told theedgemarkets.com that the KLCI bucked the regional downtrend, as glove counters powered to the positive performance of the KLCI. 

“Given the rising Covid-19 cases across the globe, this has prompted the investors to flock into rubber glove makers,” he explained.

Meanwhile, Malaysian Pacific Industries Bhd (MPI) was the day’s top loser by value on the local bourse, followed by Heineken (M) Bhd, TIME dotCom Bhd, Carlsberg Brewery (M) Bhd, Hong Leong Financial Group Bhd, KESM Industries Bhd, Dutch Lady Milk Industries Bhd, Genting Bhd and Kuala Lumpur Kepong Bhd.

Of the actives, LKL International Bhd topped the list with 299.01 million shares traded. It closed down 1.5 sen or 4.23% at 34 sen.

Other active lists included Minda Global Bhd, Focus Dynamics Group Bhd, G3 Global Bhd, At Systematization Bhd, Mestron Holdings Bhd, HLT Global Bhd, Careplus Group Bhd, Luster Industries Bhd and Rubberex Corp (M) Bhd.

Reuters reported Asian shares slipped on Thursday, dragged down by Chinese stocks as recent upbeat economic data raised fears of monetary policy tightening, while the dollar index struggled near one-month lows.

In China, Hong Kong’s Hang Seng Index fell 0.37% while the Shanghai Stock Exchange Composite Index dropped 0.52%.

Japan's Nikkei pared early gains to finish 0.07% higher, while New Zealand's benchmark index fell 0.9%.