Bursa Malaysia ends at intraday high, CI up 11.77 pts

KUALA LUMPUR: Bursa Malaysia benefited from gains in selected commodity-related counters to end at an intra-day high yesterday, and in line with most Asian peers, due to positive catalysts, dealers said.

The positive momentum saw the benchmark FTSE Bursa Malaysia KLCI (FBM KLCI) close at 1,771.76, up 11.77 points from Tuesday’s close of 1,759.99, after opening 0.72 of-apoint higher at 1,760.71.

Over the course of the day, the key index also moved as low as 1,760.69.

Market breadth was positive with 578 gainers against 334 losers, while 393 counters were unchanged, 549 untraded and 63 others suspended.

Total volume rose to 2.31 billion shares worth RM1.99 billion from 2.07 billion shares valued at RM1.60 billion on Tuesday.

Hengyuan Refining and Petron Malaysia Refining were the top two gainer stocks, rising RM1.10 and 82 sen each to RM16.50 and RM13.86 respectively.

A dealer said most Asian markets rose on Wednesday on the back of a rally in oil and metal prices.

He said the oil price reached a more than two-year high due to a re-emerging fear on supply after an explosion at a Libyan crude pipeline and as gold and copper hovered near multi-week highs to provide healthy support towards the commodity and energy-linked counters.

The Singapore’s Straits Times index rose 0.42 per cent to 3,392.35 points, Hong Kong’s Hang Seng added 0.07 per cent to 29,597.66 points, while South Korea’s Kospi increased 0.38 per cent to 2,436.67 points.

Among heavyweights, Maybank gained eight sen to RM9.55, TNB surged 14 sen to RM51.12, Petronas Chemicals soared 20 sen to RM7.80, while Public Bank was flat at RM20.70.

Of the actives, Sapura Energy and Sino Hua-An bagged 1.5 sen each to 73 sen and 31.5 sen respectively, DGB Asia went up one sen to 17.5 sen, while Sumatec Resources was flat at five sen.

The FBM Emas Index was up 87.02 points to 12,744.10, the FBMT 100 Index increased 82.32 points to 12,411.08 and the FBM Ace jumped 118.36 points to 6,552.43.

The FBM Emas Shariah Index perked 97.93 points to 13,116.71 and the FBM 70 bagged 104 points to 15,734.77.

Sector-wise, the Finance Index secured 63.91 points to 16,654.47, the Industrial Index improved 25.34 points to 3,256.19 and the Plantation Index earned 7.59 points to 7,907.45.

Main Market volume advanced to 1.44 billion units worth RM1.81 billion compared with 1.25 billion units valued at RM1.46 billion on Tuesday.

Volume on the ACE Market slipped to 619.38 million shares worth RM125.81 million from 638.36 million shares valued at RM107.70 million.

Warrants volume increased to 244.34 million units worth RM48.31 million from 172.38 million units valued at RM30.04 million.

Consumer products accounted for 77.05 million shares traded on the Main Market, industrial products (437.69 million), construction (47.39 million), trade and services (619.82 million), technology (103.64 million), infrastructure (5.40 million), SPAC (2.55 million), finance (50.58 million), hotels (423,300), properties (79.83 million), plantations (11.19 million), mining (nil), REITs (4.24 million) and closed/fund (8,200).

For further information on stocks and prices, please visit www.bursamalaysia.com.