KL shares buck regional trend to end week higher

KUALA LUMPUR: Bursa Malaysia ended the week higher today, bucking the regional trend amid cautious investor sentiment ahead of the release of the US jobs data, dealers said.

The benchmark FTSE Bursa Malaysia KLCI ( FBM KLCI) ended at 1,628.96 points, 2.52 points higher compared with Thursday’s close of 1,626.44, after moving between 1,626.38 and 1,632.23.

The index opened 1.07 points higher at 1,627.51.

The market breadth was positive as gainers led losers 386 to 331 with 334 counters unchanged, 640 untraded and 20 others suspended.

Volume, however, fell to 1.28 billionsharesworthRM1.46billion from 1.53 billion shares worth RM1.60 billion on Thursday.

A dealer said the tone was cautious, as investors awaited the release of US job data later today, for further clue on the market’s direction and anticipation of the US interest rate increase in December.

Regionally, Japan’s Nikkei 225 fell 0.47 per cent to 18,426.08, Hong Kong’s Hang Seng dropped 1.37 per cent to 22,564.82, South Korea’s Kospi shed 0.66 per cent to 1,970.61 and Singapore’s Straits Times eased 0.29 per cent to 2,920.23.

Of the heavyweights, Maybank and TNB added six sen each to RM7.85 and RM14.04 respectively, Petronas Chemicals improved two sen to RM6.88 and Sime Darby increased three sen to RM8.13.

Public Bank was RM19.64.

Among actives, Hibiscus Petroleum and Green Packet improved half-a-sen each to 30 sen and 27.5 sen, respectively, Wintoni shed half-a-sen to 4.5 sen while KNM Group and Sumatec Resources were flat at 33.5 sen and 5.5 sen, respectively.

The FBM Emas Index rose by 8.14 points to 11,399.17, FBM Emas Shariah Index added 8.63 points to 11,926.14 and the FBMT100 Index was up 6.64 points to 11,131.03.

The FBM Ace slipped 23.24 points to 4,778.57 and the FBM 70 was 30.73 points lower at 13,076.40.

Sector-wise, the Finance Index improved 28.53 points to 14,288.27 and the Plantation Index surged 40.02 points to 7,718.24.

The Industrial Index shed 10.60 points to 3,063.54.

Main Market turnover decreased to 851.99 million units worth RM1.39 billion from yesterday’s 972.55 million units worth RM1.52 billion.

The ACE Market fell to 206.50 million shares valued at RM25.96 million from 264.55 million shares valued at RM29.15 million on Thursday.

Warrants slipped to 223.15 million units worth RM43.61 million from 284.69 million units worth RM48.11 million yesterday. — Bernama f lat at