KUALA LUMPUR (July 9): Bursa Malaysia Bhd’s shares spiked as much as 59 sen or 7.38% to its highest intraday price of RM8.59 today, after securities trade volume across the stock exchange hit a record high of 11.81 billion units yesterday.
At noon break, the stock exchange operator and regulator's share price pared some gains to RM8.43, still up 43 sen or 5.38% from yesterday's close -- after some 5.97 million shares changed hands.
Bursa's counter was among the top gainers today. At its current share price, it has a market capitalisation of RM6.89 billion.
The fresh record high came after the stock hit RM8.40 on June 4 this year. Year to date, the stock has gained 41% from RM5.98 on Dec 31, 2019, according to Bloomberg.
At the time of writing, trading volume across the stock exchange stood at 7.07 billion units, valued at RM2.41 billion.
Yesterday, trading volume swelled to a record 11.81 billion units, valued at RM4.36 billion, driven mostly by a rush for penny stocks.
Market observers said the surge in trading interest is due to the current low interest rate environment, which rendered conventional fixed deposit yields unattractive.
This prompted increasingly more investors to shift their funds to the equities market in search of better returns.