KL shares close strongly

KUALA LUMPUR: Shares on Bursa Malaysia closed strongly yesterday, boosted by strong buying in selected index-linked counters, dealers said.

At 5pm, the FTSE Bursa Malaysia KLCI ( FBM KLCI) closed 18.19 points higher at 1,814.04, after moving between 1,798.24 and 1,814.54 throughout the day.

A dealer said index- linked and bluechips dominated the top gainers list with traders positioning themselves ahead of the month-end window dressing activities.

Among heavyweights, PPB perked 48 sen to RM15.20, KLK chalked up 46 sen to RM22.60, Genting improved 40 sen to RM8.70, UMW garnered 30 sen to RM10.98 and TNB rose 22 sen to RM14.46.

Of the actively-traded stocks, Asia Bioenergy added one sen to 11 sen, Privasia gained 1.5 sen to 34 sen, Ingenuity and Sumatec earned half a sen each to 7.5 sen and 22.5 sen and Takaso climbed 2.5 sen to 51 sen.

On the scoreboard, the FBM Emas Index rose 103.64 points to 12,446.88, as the FBMT100 Index surged 106.73 points to 12,145.57 and the FBM Emas Syariah Index bagged 106.73 points to 13,062.56.

The FBM Ace firmed 3.32 points to 6,892.55 and the FBM 70 was 58.95 points better at 13,353.74.

On a sectoral basis, the Industrial Index was up 21.9 points to 3,337.82, the Plantation Index expanded 39.32 points to 7,795.44, and the Finance Index jumped 84.221 points to 16,004.53.

Losers edged gainers 415 to 400 with 329 counters unchanged, 629 untraded and 14 others suspended.

Total volume, however, declined to 1.9 billion shares worth RM1.83 billion from the 2.13 billion worth RM1.77 billion on Monday.

The Main Market volume decreased to 1.3 billion shares worth RM1.63 billion from 1.4 billion shares worth RM1.59 billion on Monday.

Turnover on the ACE Market rose to 787.54 million shares valued at RM145.61 million from the 611.93 million shares valued at RM14.38 million yesterday.

Warrants expanded to 124.57 million units worth RM49.18 million from 110.65 million units worth RM3.04 million previously.

Consumer products accounted for 158.89 million shares traded on the Main Market, industrial products ( 169.24 million), construction ( 32.88 million), trade and services ( 428.79 million), technology (49.98 million), infrastructure ( 15.23 million), SPAC ( 18.18 million), finance (43.01 million), hotels (3.63 million), properties (86.89 million), plantations (12.41 million), mining (107,300), REITs (12.92 million) and closed/fund (3,000). — Bernama