Bursa Malaysia ends higher with regional markets

and Singapore’s Straits Times rose 11.2 points to 3,111.59.

Back home, Kenanga Research said the upbeat market sentiment was also supported by the recovering ringgit versus the US dollar, which lingered at the 4.40 level, as well as crude oil prices which ranged between US$54 and US$57 per barrel since last month.

“The strong US market also helped encourage local investors to return to the market,” it said, referring to the surge on Wall Street after Trump commented on the tax reform plan.

On the scoreboard, the FBM Emas Index increased 68.85 points to 12,032.28, the FBMT 100 Index rose 67.14 points to 11,710.72 and the FBM Emas Syariah Index garnered 62.96 points higher at 12,553.36.

The FBM 70 improved 40.58 points to 13,852.28 and the FBM Ace Index advanced 62.21 points to 5,308.60.

Sector-wise, the Industrial Index was 23.51 points better at 3,260.93, the Finance Index surged 100.67 points to 15,091.39 and the Plantation Index added 23.24 points to 8,238.53.

Among heavyweights, Maybank inched up five sen to RM8.35, Public Bank gained 12 sen to RM20.22, Tenaga improved 16 sen to RM13.66 and Sime Darby rose eight sen to RM9.07.

As for actives, Bumi Armada garnered two sen to 68 sen, IFCA MSC inched up 1.5 sen to 52 sen, and Hibiscus Petroleum and Metronic Global were half-a-sen better each at 54 sen and nine sen, respectively.

Main Market turnover reduced to 1.79 billion shares valued at RM2.13 billion from 2.05 billion units worth RM2.30 billion last Friday.

The ACE Market improved to 476.73 million shares valued at RM107.42 from 435.78 million shares valued at RM88.00 million previously.

Warrants eased to 179.39 million worth RM27.23 million from 188.47 million units worth RM25.97 million last Friday.

Consumer products accounted for 165.28 million shares traded on the Main Market, industrial products (376.09 million), construction (148.61 million), trade and services (775.40 million), technology (58.53 million), infrastructure (17.69 million), SPAC ( 2.15 million), finance ( 69.44 million), hotels (154,500), properties (128.54 million), plantations (34.67 million), mining (52,000), REITs (8.68 million), and closed/ fund (17,000).