KUALA LUMPUR: Bursa Malaysia ended in the positive territory amid cautious trading as Bank Negara raise interest rates for third consecutive time to 2.50%.
At 5pm, the 30-stock index closed 3.38 points higher at 1,494.73 after hitting an intra-day high of 1,497.66.
There were 416 gainers, 372 losers and 451 counters traded unchanged on the Bursa Malaysia. Turnover stood at 2.39 billion shares valued at RM1.86bil.
Bank Negara said the ceiling and floor rate of the corridor of the overnight policy rate (OPR) to 2.75% and 2.25% respectively.
This is the central bank’s third consecutive rate hike, bringing the total increase in the OPR to 75bps so far this year.
Dealers said expectations of a rate hike by Bank Negara has been priced in by the market, an eventual OPR hike may not add much momentum to banking counters.
Maybank added two sen to RM8.95 while Public Bank, CIMB and RHB Bank closed unchanged at RM4.64, RM5.40 and RM5.77 respectively.
Among the gainers, Nestle jumped 60 sen to RM132.90, PETRONAS Dagangan rose 48 sen to RM21.88, SAM Engineering added 28 sen to RM4.69 and F&N climbed 26 sen to RM22.26.
Batu Kawan fell 24 sen to RM22.76, Ta Ann lost 12 sen to RM4.10, Harrisons eased 11 sen to RM6.02 and Kotra Industries
declined 10 sen to RM4.
Meanwhile, Asian bourses closed higher today, with Japan’s Nikkei 225 rising 2.31%, South Korea’s Kospi rose 0.33%, Hong Kong’s Hang Seng fell 1%% and China’s Shanghai Composite closed down 0.33%.