Bursa Malaysia opened higher at the start of trading today but declined afterwards to record a different performance compared to global trends with stocks rising for the 11th day in a row and reaching new highs, driven by confidence in the Covid-19 vaccine injection program as well as new fiscal assistance by Washington.
At 9.08am, the benchmark FTSE Bursa Malaysia KLCI (FBM KLCI) fell 0.72 points to 1,607.35 from 1,608.07 when it closed on Monday.
Bernama reported that the index opened 3.97 points higher at 1,612.04.
In the broader market, gainers outnumbered losers by 324 to 207 while 347 counters were unchanged, 1,283 counters untraded and 11 others suspended.
Turnover stood at 702.81 million units worth RM308.11 million.
According to a research note, Public Investment Bank explained that as more and more people are being vaccinated across major markets such as the United States (US) besides US President Joe Biden also wants to implement a US $ 1.9 trillion stimulus package into the economy, causing trade recovery to improve in recent days.
“Taking the lead from strong Asian trading sessions despite being quiet as it is still in the festive holiday environment, major European indices recorded an increase at the start of trading, with Britain's FTSE 100 rising 2.2%.
"As the Chinese and Hong Kong markets remain closed in conjunction with the Chinese New Year celebrations, the Japanese Nikkei led the rise by 1.9% to hit 30,000 points for the first time in more than three decades," he said.
Among heavyweights, Maybank rose three sen to RM8.15, Public Bank added two sen to RM4.23, Top Glove added one sen to RM6.18, while PChem declined two sen to RM7.54 and Tenaga declined 19 sen to RM9.99.
For active stocks, ARB Bhd rose 3.5 sen to 37 sen, DGB Asia and Dagang Nexchange rose 1.5 sen to 11 sen and 55 sen, respectively, while Techna-X declined one sen to 16.5 sen and Luster Industries less than half a sen to 23.5 sen.
On the index board, the FBM Emas Index added 8.6 points to 11,745.47, the FBMT 100 Index rose 5.0 points to 11,446.11 and the FBM Emas Syariah Index added 0.68 points to 13,210.89.
FBM 70 jumped 45.76 points to 15,397.61 and FBM ACE declined 3.4 points to 11,227.84.
By sector, the Financial Services Index rose 19.89 points to 15,135.85, the Industrial Goods and Services Index rose 0.31 points to 182.12 while the Plantation Index fell 1.06 points to 7,194.84.
