KUALA LUMPUR, Feb 25 — Bursa Malaysia’s key index breached the resistance level of 1,580 at the close as investors regained confidence following the official start of the National Covid-19 Immunisation Programme yesterday.

At 5pm, the benchmark FTSE Bursa Malaysia KLCI (FBM KLCI) surged 23.99 points, or 1.54 per cent, to 1,581.54 from 1,557.55 at yesterday’s closing.

The key index opened 9.35 points firmer at 1,566.90 and hovered between 1,565.77 and 1,587.11 throughout the day.

Market breadth was positive with gainers outpacing losers 857 to 402, while 411 counters were unchanged, 528 untraded and 71 others suspended. 

Total volume was lower at 10.44 billion units worth RM6.57 billion compared with 12.70 billion units worth RM7.01 billion yesterday.

Across the board, all sectors were in the green zone, except for the Healthcare Index which remained the sole loser as traders continued to offload their shares in rubber glove and pharmaceutical companies.

Commenting on today’s performance, Areca Capital Sdn Bhd chief executive officer Danny Wong Teck Meng said the vaccination programme which officially commenced yesterday had restored investors’ confidence.

"Investors have been excited over the vaccination programme, and they have shifted towards recovery play now,” he told Bernama.

According to Wong, the recent retreats of the local bourse involved healthy profit-taking for traders to accumulate value stocks.

He believed the local stock market would be trading sideways over the next one to two weeks, focusing mainly on recovery-themed stocks.

Of the 30 FBM KLCI counters, over two-thirds were in the positive territory.

Among them, Press Metal rose 71 sen to RM9.66, Maybank advanced 20 sen to RM8.09, Public Bank picked up nine sen to RM4.17, Axiata was 27 sen better at RM3.57 and Tenaga bagged 22  sen to RM20.12.

Top gainers included MPI which surged RM2.94 to RM38.00, Carlsberg which jumped 66 sen to RM23.96 and D&O Green Technologies which gained 66 sen to RM3.99.

The top losers list was led by Rapid Synergy which declined 36 sen to RM7.40, followed by Hartalega which lost 26 sen to RM10.14.

Pharmaniaga shed 24 sen to RM4.16 while Duopharma was nine sen easier at RM3.10.

Active counters included Permaju Industries which lifted 2.5 sen to 17.5 sen and Dagang NeXchange warrants which inched up three sen to 35 sen.

Metronic Global slipped two sen to 8.5 sen, while XOX and Key Alliance shed half-a- sen each to nine sen and five sen, respectively.

On the index board, the FBM Emas Index racked up 192.72 points to 11,675.85, the FBMT 100 Index advanced 178.52 points to 11,352.78, and the FBM Emas Shariah Index was 209.56 points higher at 13,081.65.

The FBM 70 gained 269.90 points to 15,621.36 and the FBM ACE increased 142.11 points to 10,963.20.

Sector-wise, the Financial Services Index added 272.05 points to 14,985.79, the Industrial Products and Services Index ticked up 6.08 points to 187.57 and the Plantation Index improved 52.33 points to 7,213.03.

The Healthcare Index slipped 23.82 to 3,224.09.

The Main Market volume narrowed to 7.14 billion shares worth RM5.72 billion from 8.16 billion shares worth RM5.92 billion yesterday.

Warrants turnover was lower at 481.14 million units valued at RM91.22 million versus 504.27 million units valued at RM90.75 million yesterday.

Volume on the ACE Market slid to 2.81 billion shares worth RM760.90 million against 4.03 billion shares worth RM996.19 million previously.

Consumer products and services accounted for 1.57 billion shares traded on the Main Market, industrial products and services (2.49 billion), construction (188.63 million), technology (1.28 billion), SPAC (nil), financial services (176.50 million), property (171.74 million), plantations (41.42 million), REITs (8.86 million), closed/fund (26,900), energy (820.50 million), healthcare (158.93 million), telecommunications and media (99.93 million), transportation and logistics (92.41 million), and utilities (31.06 million). — Bernama