Bursa stages pre-Budget rally as mood in region brightens

KUALA LUMPUR: Bursa Malaysia surged yesterday on a pre-Budget rally and positive sentiment on regional stock markets.

At the close, FTSE Bursa Malaysia KLCI (FBM KLCI) gained 8.5 points to settle at 1,627.80. This was driven by the better performance of stocks like DiGi. Com Bhd, Axiata Group Bhd and IJM Corp Bhd.

Analysts said the rally could be due to possible goodies in the 2013 Budget to be announced by Prime Minister Datuk Seri Najib Razak today relating to real property gains tax, income tax and the power sector.

"Property stocks will react if there are some good incentives for the sector," an analyst at a foreign research house told Business Times in a phone interview yesterday.

Among heavyweights, Maybank rose 7 sen to RM9.02, Axiata improved 5 sen to RM6.39, AirAsia gained 10 sen to RM2.95 and DiGi increased 17 sen to RM5.29.

A dealer said the stronger performance was partially due to the end-month period in line with companies closing their books as well as the concluding period for futures trading.

"I don't think the FBM KLCI was reacting to the Budget too much today. It's just a coincidence. If there is good news on the property sector for example, their stocks should have been climbing for the past two to three days," the dealer said yestterday.

Analysts said global bourses generally trended upwards yesterday, although investors' sentiment was still dampened by the on-going economic slowdown in Europe.

Japan's Nikkei Index gained 43.1 points to end at 8,849.8 points, while Hong Kong's Hang Seng Index closed 234.5 points higher to 20,762.29 points.