Bursa records highest volume in five years

PETALING JAYA: Bursa Malaysia's trading volume swelled to 4.39 billion shares, the highest in five years, as investors and traders came back in full force yesterday after the long holidays.

The number of shares traded was the second highest on record. The record in a single day stands at about 4.8 billion shares which was back in February 2007 during the last bull run of the local bourse.

“After the long break, including the Chinese New Year holidays and the recent long weekend, both retailers and funds are back and starting to take meaningful positions for the entire year,” a market analyst remarked.

As a comparison, the average daily trading volume last week was about 2.5 billion shares.

Increased market interest sent the 30-stock FTSE Bursa Malaysia Kuala Lumpur Composite Index up 14 points or 0.94% to 1,553.18.

In the broader market, there was notable interest in lower liners such as Naim Indah Corp Bhd, Green Ocean Corp Bhd, Utopia Bhd and Compugates Holdings Bhd.

Market analysts believe that the current interest is sustainable, at least in the shorter term with positive economic news, such as a possible new Greek bailout package, buoying sentiment.

Furthermore, the local stock market needed to play catch-up with its counterparts as it had been closed for the past couple of days during which some of the other markets ran up, said the market analyst.

At the close, a total of 593 counters were up, 322 were down while 293 were traded unchanged.

While the trading volume was high, the value of shares traded at RM3.3bil was not at record levels. Still, this remains higher than the recent average of about RM2.5bil.

Among the largest gainers yesterday, Tenaga Nasional Bhd rose 39 sen to RM6.38, PPB Group Bhd added 52 sen to RM17.72 while AEON Co (M) Bhd ended 50 sen up to RM8.

By YVONNE TAN, yvonne@thestar.com.my