Bursa Malaysia closes firmer

KUALA LUMPUR: Bursa Malaysia closed firmer yesterday with investor sentiment continuing to recover following government assurances of an investment friendly environment.

At close, the benchmark FTSE Bursa Malaysia KLCI ( FBM KLCI) rose 10.06 points to 1,858.26 from Tuesday’s close of 1,848.2.

The index opened 3.63 points higher at 1,851.83 and hovered between 1,841.83 and 1,862.35 throughout the day.

Newly-elected Prime Minister Tun Dr Mahathir Mohamed in an interview with an international business publication yesterday gave an assurance that the government would maintain an investment friendly environment.

He said Malaysia welcomed foreign direct investments from all over the world, including China.

Among heavyweights, Maybank perked six sen to RM10.86, Public Bank rose 50 sen to RM24.50, Petronas Chemicals gained two sen to RM8.62 and CIMB added 10 sen to RM6.85.

Among the actives, Advance Synergy eased three sen to 19.5 sen with Sapura Energy and MRCB slipping half a sen each to 81 sen and 76.5 sen.

UMW O&G climbed half a sen to 30 sen, while Nexgram was flat at five sen.

Market breadth was positive with gainers outpacing losers 492 to 486, with 368 counters unchanged, 535 untraded and 19 others suspended.

Volume fell to three billion units valued at RM2.911 billion from yesterday’s 4.31 billion units valued at RM4.44 billion.

The FBM Emas Index increased 71 points to 12,950.37, the FBM Ace improved 21.22 points to 5,495.96 and the FBMT 100 Index went up 68.37 points to 12,747.94.

The FBM Emas Shariah Index edged up 29.66 points to 13,070.2 and the FBM 70 was 79.42 points higher at 15,255.49.

Sector-wise, the Finance Index gained 172.26 points to 18,374.72, the Industrial Index bagged 2.97 points to 3,288.43 and the Plantation Index climbed 24.6 points to 8,012.81.

Main Market volume decreased to 2.09 billion shares worth RM2.75 billion from yesterday’s 3.03 billion shares worth RM4.22 billion.

Warrants volume contracted to 562.61million units valued at RM95.49 million from Tuesday’s 693.48 million units valued at RM92.02 million.

Volume on the ACE Market declined to 344.17 million shares worth RM60.41 million from 576.48 million shares worth RM129.95 million.

Consumer products accounted for 50.82 million shares traded on the Main Market, industrial products (311.33 million), construction ( 200.93 million), trade and services (1.07 billion), technology ( 139.35 million), infrastructure (17.18 million), SPAC ( 9.58 million), finance (66.58 million), hotels (22.2 million), properties ( 166.34 million), plantations ( 25.37 million), mining ( 11,200), REITs (11.48 million) and closed/fund (17,000).

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