An investor monitors the stock prices in the gallery of the RHB Investment Bank Bhd headquarters in Kuala Lumpur March 17, 2020. ― Picture by Hari AnggaraKUALA LUMPUR, April 16 — Bursa Malaysia closed marginally higher today, with its key index rebounding on last-minute buying in tandem with the recovery in the broader market, thanks to gains in Top Glove, other selected heavyweights and small-capitalisation stocks.
Top Glove was the largest contributor to the gains in the composite index with 2.03 points, after rising 13 sen to RM5.57, while Supermax was the biggest gainer among the 30-constituent index as it increased 4.12 per cent. Total volume increased to 6.56 billion shares worth RM4.39 billion from 6.52 billion shares valued at RM4.74 billion on Thursday.
The daily tally of new Covid-19 cases in Malaysia surged to 2,148 yesterday from 1,889 a day earlier. The last time the country recorded more than 2,000 daily cases was on March 5, with 2,154 cases.Adam said other catalysts that might have provided a fillip to the local market sentiment were the United States retails sales, which recorded the biggest gain in 10 months in March, and China’s gross domestic product grew by 18.
Among the active counters, Ucrest went up 5.5 sen to 35 sen, Focus dipped nine sen to 15 sen, Minda inched down half-a-sen to 15.5 sen, LKL declined 2.5 sen to 31.5 sen, while Key Asic added one sen to 15 sen. Sector-wise, the Plantation Index reduced 50.32 points to 6,880.05, the Financial Services Index went down 34.92 points to 15,075.16, but the Industrial Products and Services Index added 0.42 of-a-point to 196.83.