FBM KLCI closes at day’s high on late buying

LAST-MINUTE buying in heavyweight and finance counters lifted Bursa Malaysia’s key index to end at an intra-day high yesterday, despite weaker sentiment in the regional markets, dealers said.

The FBM KLCI finished at 1,828.63, up 2.60 points It opened 1.48 points lower at 1,824.55. The market barometer hit a low of 1,821.54 during the day.

Overall market breadth, however, was bearish as losers beat winners 678 to 321, while 390 counters were unchanged, 444 untraded and 22 suspended.

Turnover fell to 4.97 billion units worth RM2.79 billion. Main Market volume slipped to 2.87 billion units worth RM2.55 billion but volume on the ACE Market rose to 1.67 billion shares worth RM173.29 million.

Hong Leong Bank topped the gainers list, rising 58 sen to RM17.80, contributing 2.23 points to the composite index.

Among the other heavyweights, Maybank advanced 3 sen to RM9.88, Public Bank was flat at RM20.88, while TNB declined 6 sen to RM15.82, and Petronas Chemicals and CIMB Group fell 2 sen each to RM8.17 and RM6.77, respectively.

A dealer said most of the Asian bourses were hurt by a small decline in Wall Street on Tuesday which spurred mild selling pressure.

He said the retreat in oil and commodity prices also affected selected resource and commodity-related counters across the region. – Bernama