KUALA LUMPUR, Oct 1 — Bursa Malaysia rebounded from yesterday’s losses to close higher today, buoyed by bargain hunting after three consecutive days of sell-off, an analyst said.

The local exchange rallied from mid-morning Tuesday as market sentiment improved, with Petronas Chemicals leading the gains, rising 16 sen to RM5.80 and contributing 2.17 points to the benchmark index.

The FTSE Bursa Malaysia KLCI (FBM KLCI) increased by 7.48 points, or 0.45 per cent, settling at 1,656.39, up from Monday’s close of 1,648.91.

The key index opened 1.49 points lower at 1,647.42 and fluctuated between 1,643.11 and 1,657.32 throughout the day.

On the broader market, gainers outnumbered decliners by 671 to 379, with 475 counters unchanged, 884 untraded and six suspended.

Turnover fell to 2.55 billion units valued at RM2.41 billion, down from Monday’s 4.06 billion units worth RM3.22 billion.

Rakuten Trade Sdn Bhd’s equity research vice-president, Thong Pak Leng, said the regional markets displayed mixed results, with Japan seeing some buying, while China and Hong Kong were closed for National Day.

"We remain cautious and expect market volatility to persist. Nevertheless, the benchmark’s valuation appears attractive, and strong fundamentals in the local economy and corporate earnings are expected to drive the market going forward, suggesting sideways movement with an upward bias.”

"We anticipate the FBM KLCI to range between 1,650 and 1,670 for the rest of the week,” he told Bernama today.

Among other heavyweight stocks, Maybank increased by 6.0 sen to RM10.54, Public Bank added 5.0 sen to RM4.61, CIMB Group rose 4.0 sen to RM8.09, and IHH Healthcare advanced 8.0 sen to RM7.24, while Tenaga Nasional declined by 4.0 sen to RM14.40.

Of the active stocks, DNex rose 4.0 sen to 37.5 sen, MyEG gained half-a-sen to 89.5 sen, 99 Speed Mart improved by 2.0 sen to RM2.25, while Capital A slipped by 1.0 sen to 98 sen.

On the index board, the FBM Emas Index gained 73.05 points to 12,394.96, the FBM Emas Shariah Index advanced 72.92 points to 12,318.04, the FBMT 100 Index secured 65.25 points to 12,086.96, the FBM 70 Index surged 134.36 points to 17,532.89 while the FBM ACE Index perked 36.02 points to 5,213.30.

By sector, the Plantation Index improved 9.99 points to 7,189.29, the Industrial Products and Services Index inched up 2.13 points to 179.09 and the Energy Index was 3.73 points lower at 842.62.

The Financial Services Index jumped 106.84 points to 19,396.02.

The Main Market volume declined to 1.73 billion units worth RM2.26 billion from Monday’s 1.83 billion units worth RM2.88 billion.

Warrant turnover narrowed to 416.52 million units valued at RM41.20 million from 1.59 billion units valued at RM218.04 million previously.

The ACE Market volume slipped to 401.11 million units worth RM102.3 million from 635.08 million units worth RM118.62 million.

Consumer products and services counters accounted for 398.35 million shares traded on the Main Market, industrial products and services (285.73 million), construction (175.53 million), technology (287.15 million), SPAC (nil), financial services (71.03 million), property (193.77 million), plantation (16.42 million), REITs (13.03 million), closed/fund (100,100), energy (102.98 million), healthcare (63.66 million), telecommunications and media (39.04 million), transportation and logistics (32.91 million), utilities (53.32 million), and business trusts (56,400 million). — Bernama