KL shares off to good start, closes higher

A dealer said the higher volume was driven by the recent 25 points interest rate hike by the US Federal Reserve, signalling an improving US economy.

“This gives foreign investors more confidence in buying more assets in emerging countries, including Malaysia,” he added.

Among heavyweights on Bursa Malaysia, Petronas Chemicals rose two sen to RM7.45, IHH Healthcare added five sen to RM6.03 and Maxis gained three sen to RM5.08. Other heavyweights, Maybank and TNB were flat at RM8.90 and RM13.72, while Public Bank and Sime Darby eased four sen each to RM20.14 and RM9.30, respectively.

Of the actives, PUC Founder rose four sen to 15.5 sen, Olympia Industries gained 5.5 sen to 19 sen and Dataprep increased 11.5 sen to 55 sen. The FBM Emas Index increased 27.4 points to 12,368.74, the FBMT100 Index rose 27.29 points to 12,023.59, and the FBM Emas Syariah Index was 25.02 points better at 12,752.25.

The FBM 70 inched up 26.46 points to 14,392.3 and the FBM Ace surged 80.72 points to 5,611.88.

Sector-wise, the Finance Index perked 49.22 points to 15,789.22, the Plantation Index improved 41.81 points to 8,203.42 and the Industrial Index rose 15.16 points to 3,278.97.

Main Market turnover fell to 3.51 billion units worth RM2.73 billion from 3.96 billion units worth RM4.9 billion last week.

Volume on the ACE Market jumped to 2.02 billion shares valued at RM227.54 million from 766.51 million shares valued at RM101.76 million.

Warrants advanced to 392.33 million units worth RM43.62 million from 235.99 million units worth RM29.97 million.

Consumer products accounted for 517.67 million shares traded on the Main Market, industrial products (654.88 million), construction (264.2 million), trade and services (996.48 million), technology ( 332.58 million), infrastructure (18.04 million), SPAC ( 3.44 million), finance (181.3 million), hotels (9.71 million), properties (422.84 million), plantations (101.88 million), mining (55,400), REITs (6.98 million), and closed/fund (43,000).

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