KL shares up on late buying support

KUALA LUMPUR: Share prices on Bursa Malaysia closed higher yesterday on late buying support prompted by overnight gains on Wall Street, dealers said.

A dealer said FBM KLCI moved in line with the regional markets, which rose after the US Federal Reserve’s (Fed) March meeting which eased worries of the potential interest rate increase.

“Sentiment improved after the Fed meeting revealed a more dovish stance than what investors expected,” he said.

However, any strong rebound would be capped near the 1,870level as the FBM KLCI needed to undergo a healthy consolidation to neutralise the overbought position, he said.

Active buying in the final 10 minutes pushed the benchmark FTSE Bursa Malaysia KLCI (FBM KLCI) to close at 1,859.52, up 3.77 points.

The benchmark index, which opened 3.74 points higher at 1,859.49, moved between 1,855.56 and 1,860.28 throughout the day.

The gainer-to-loser ratio was 546 to 307, while 306 counters were unchanged, 458 untraded and 14 others were suspended.

Turnover declined to 2.08 billion shares worth RM2.32 billion from 2.22 billion shares worth RM2.38 billion yesterday.

The Finance Index increased 42.08 points to 16,937.88, Industrial Index rose 11.85 points to 3,208.41 and the Plantation Index added 51.82 points to 8,995.38.

The FBM Emas Index advanced 47.22 points to 12,904.55, FBMT100 Index added 42.7 points to 12,547.41 and the FBM 70 jumped 115.49 points to 14,169.29.

The FBM Ace, however, slipped 8.61 points to 6,784.76.

Among the top gainers, BAT advanced RM1.06 to RM61.42, Panasonic Manufacturing rose 54 sen to RM22.54 and Bonia added 22 sen to RM5.37.

Of the actives, KNM-Wa rose 2.5 sen to 37 sen, PDZ Holdings gained half a sen to 14.5 sen and KNM Group added 3.5 sen to 88 sen.

In heavyweights, Maybank rose three sen to RM9.75, Tenaga added two sen to RM11.92 and CIMB gained one sen to RM7.45.

The Main market volume declined to 1.67 billion units worth RM2.21 billion from 1.82 billion units worth RM2.26 billion on Wednesday.

Turnover on the ACE market increased to 382.13 million shares valued at RM104.23 million from Wednesday’s 356.15 million shares valued at RM105.82 million.

Warrants declined to 28.53 million units worth RM4.52 million from 35.58 million units worth RM7.22 million previously.

Consumer products accounted for 83.5 million shares traded on the Main Market, industrial products 401.33 million, construction 133.84 million, trade and services 615.63 million, technology 71.07 million, infrastructure 18.34 million, SPAC 15.1 million, finance 103.45 million, hotels 4.47 million, properties 193.48 million, plantations 18.45 million, mining 161,100, REITs 8.1 million and closed/ fund 58,700. — Bernama