Bursa closes slightly higher

KUALA LUMPUR: The benchmark FTSE Bursa Malaysia KLCI (FBM KLCI) ended slightly higher yesterday, as emerging profit taking in plantation and consumer stocks limited gains, dealers said.

The index closed 4.29 points higherat1,692.490fromThursday’s 1,688.20.

The FBM KLCI opened trading 1.72 points weaker at 1,686.48.

British American Tobacco and Petronas Dagangan were the top two losers as the market closed, declining 82 sen and 34 sen each to RM56.46 and RM24.44 respectively.

A dealer said the local benchmark index had trimmed earlier gains on renewed concerns over the unexpected fall in Malaysia’s export data in January, reflecting weak oil shipments.

Meanwhile, other regional bourses were higher, as global investors reacted to the positive US economic data and further strengthening in oil and commodity prices.

On the scoreboard, the FBM Emas Index added 14.49 points to 11,722.64, the FBMT100 Index improved 15.92 points to 11,430.73 but the FBM Emas Shariah dipped 27.47 points to 12,424.29.

The FBM 70 shed 29.23 points for 12,946.53, while the FBM Ace erased 4.76 points to 5,684.08.

Sector-wise, the Industrial Index slipped 3.69 points to 3,291.82, the Finance Index surged 138.31 points to 14,363.96 and the Plantation Index fell 45.50 points to 7,819.05.

There were 463 losers to 334 gainers, while 381 counters were unchanged, 555 untraded and 19 others suspended.

Volume was slightly lower at 1.78 billion shares worth RM2.16 billion from the 1.87 billion shares valued at RM2.25 billion traded on Thursday.

Amongheavyweights,Maybank added one sen to RM8.75, Public Bank went up 14 sen to RM18.80, Petronas Chemicals rose six sen to RM6.98 while TNB was flat at RM13.28.

Of the actives, AirAsia X advanced 1.5 sen to 30 sen, AirAsia was five sen higher at RM1.73, Vivocom earned one sen to 27 sen while Minetech was flat at seven sen.

Main Market volume slipped to 1.34 billion units valued at RM2.07 billion from Thursday’s 1.40 billion units worth RM2.16 billion.

Turnover on the ACE Market slipped to 252.13 million shares worth RM45.38 million from Thursday’s 260.20 million shares valued at RM47.37 million.

Warrants widened to 178.95 million units valued at RM41.05 million against the 204.45 million units worth RM39.25 million registered previously.

Consumer products accounted for 82.77 million shares traded on the Main Market, industrial products ( 257.47 million), construction ( 32.29 million), trade and services (741.36 million), technology (25.29 million), infrastructure (11.92 million), SPAC (10.04 million), finance (68.86 million), hotels (1.03 million), properties (71.49 million), plantations (27.42 million), mining (36,300), REITs (12.72 million) and closed/fund (14,000). — Bernama