KUALA LUMPUR (Sept 15): The FBM KLCI rose 7.52 points or 0.5% following Prime Minister Datuk Seri Najib Tun Razak's announcement on Malaysian government measures to support the local share market and economy.
At 5pm, the KLCI settled at 1,647.15 points. Yesterday, the index jumped 36.03 points to close at 1,639.63.
Today, Areca Capital Sdn Bhd's chief executive officer Danny Wong said the economic stimulus announcement, which included the RM20 billion allocation for state-owned fund manager Valuecap Sdn Bhd, had partly resulted in the KLCI's gains today.
Valuecap is equally-owned by Khazanah Nasional Bhd, Kumpulan Wang Persaraan (Diperbadankan) and Permodalan Nasional Bhd.
Areca's Lee said: “In part, the prime minister’s announcement yesterday had lifted the market, but overall, the market has been trending up, after bottoming out recently. We are seeing the serious buyers re-entering the market, and the local funds are also taking advantage of the recent weakness in the market."
"The focus is now on undervalued stocks, especially those in the oil and gas (O&G), plantation and property segments, following the recent selldown," Wong told theedgemarkets.com.
Bursa Malaysia saw 2.29 billion shares, worth RM2.39 billion, traded. Gainers beat decliners at 432 versus 415.
Leading gainer was United Plantations Bhd, while top decliner was British American Tobacco (M) Bhd. The most-active counter was Ingenuity Consolidated Bhd.
Across Asia, Japan’s Nikkei 225 rose 0.34%, South Korea’s Kospi gained 0.32%, while Hong Kong’s Hang Seng fell 0.49%.
Reuters reported that Asian shares struggled on Tuesday, as caution reigned ahead of this week's U.S. Federal Reserve decision on interest rates, while the yen rose after the Bank of Japan took no new policy steps.
(Note: The Edge Research's fundamental score reflects a company’s profitability and balance sheet strength, calculated based on historical numbers. The valuation score determines if a stock is attractively valued or not, also based on historical numbers. A score of 3 suggests strong fundamentals and attractive valuations.)