Bursa Malaysia takes a breather despite positive market sentiment
At 5pm, the FTSE Bursa Malaysia KLCI (FBM KLCI) eased 4.71 points, or 0.30 per cent, to close at 1,576.34 from yesterday's close of 1,581.05.
The benchmark index opened 0.70 of-a-point firmer at 1,581.75, and moved between 1,571.19 and 1,581.79 throughout the day.
The broader market was negative, with decliners leading advancers 488 to 449, while 497 counters were unchanged, 1,138 untraded and seven suspended.
Turnover declined to 2.01 billion units worth RM2.03 billion from 2.40 billion units worth RM2.66 billion yesterday.
UOB Kay Hian Wealth Advisors Sdn Bhd head of investment research Mohd Sedek Jantan said market sentiment was steady following the release of Malaysia's 2Q 2025 GDP data, which expanded 4.4 per cent year-on-year, aligning with the company's forecast range of 4.30 to 4.50 per cent and only marginally below the advance estimate of 4.5 per cent.
"The outcome defied earlier expectations that April's reciprocal tariffs, announced by United States (US) President Donald Trump, coupled with prolonged US trade policy uncertainty, would prompt a more pronounced slowdown as businesses adopted a wait-and-see stance.
"With policy direction from Washington now clearer, we believe the worst of the trade-related drag has passed, allowing growth to remain supported in the near term," he told Bernama.
In today's session, banking stocks led gains among the FBM KLCI constituents.
"The sector is often viewed as a proxy for economic momentum, and with GDP data broadly meeting market expectations, investors rotated into financials on the belief that a resilient macro backdrop will support sustained credit demand and earnings visibility.
"This sectoral strength helped offset weakness in selected commodity-linked and export-oriented counters, which remain sensitive to shifts in global trade sentiment," he added.
Externally, Mohd Sedek noted that immediate market attention is shifting to Trump's meeting with Russian President Vladimir Putin in Alaska later today, coinciding with the release of US retail sales data.
"While headline risk from the geopolitical front may generate intraday volatility in late US trading, market beta is more likely to respond decisively at Monday's opening," he said.
Among the heavyweights, CIMB added 5.0 sen to RM7.25, Maybank eased 4.0 sen to RM9.80, Tenaga Nasional went down 6.0 sen to RM13.62, IHH Healthcare declined 8.0 sen to RM6.82, while Public Bank was flat at RM4.45.
Of the most active counters, Tanco perked up 1.0 sen to 73 sen, Oxford Innotech went up 3.5 sen to 44.5 sen, Zetrix AI inched down half-a-sen to 89.5 sen, Bina Puri was 1.5 sen lower at 35 sen, and TWL was flat at 2.5 sen.
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