KL shares up on strong buying in selected heavyweights

KUALA LUMPUR: Bursa Malaysia ended higher yesterday underpinned by strong buying in selected heavyweights, as investor sentiment was lifted by better performances of regional markets and higher oil price.

At 5 pm, the FTSE Bursa Malaysia KLCI ( FBM KLCI) closed at 1,699.89 points, up 9.56 points, or 0.56 per cent, against Monday’s close of 1,690.33 points.

The local benchmark opened 6.39 points lower at 1,683.94 and moved between 1,683.76 and 1,700.71 throughout the day.

Gainers led losers by 512 to 382 while 360 counters were unchanged, 426 untraded and 18 others were suspended.

Volume increased to 2.83 billion units worth RM2.45 billion from 2.31 billion units worth RM1.75 billion previously.

A dealer said most South-East Asian bourses were higher yesterday, prompted by gains in overnight oil prices, as well as, the possibility of further global monetary easings considering gloomy economic data from major economies.

Regionally, Indonesian shares were up 0.9 per cent while Singapore gained 0.3 per cent.

“Most countries are easing their monetary policies, with the UK, Australia and New Zealand cutting rates and Japan stepping up purchases of exchange-traded funds,” he said.

Of the heavyweights, TNB and Public Bank rose four sen each to RM14.80 and RM19.80, respectively, IHH gained three sen RM6.68 and Maybank increased eight sen to RM8.05.

Among actives, Iris increased four sen to 21 sen, Sumatec was flat at 10 sen and TH Heavy Engineering was a sen higher at 19.5 sen.

On the scoreboard, the FBM Emas Index rose 54.88 points to 11,930.61, FBMT100 Index added 54.66 points to 11,622.34 and the FBM 70 gained 25.31 points to 13,677.16.

The FBM Emas Shariah Index rose 64.05 points to 12,592.56 and the FBM Ace jumped 74.18 points to 5,586.22.

Sector-wise, the Finance Index rose 84.38 points to 14,577.29, Industrial Index added 27.22 points to 3,217.47 but the Plantation Index was 2.01 points lower at 7,737.45.

Main Market turnover increased to 1.48 billion shares worth RM2.26 billion from 1.19 billion shares worth RM1.6 billion on Monday.

The ACE Market volume rose to 532.01 million units valued at RM107.2 million from 356.3 million units valued at RM65.37 million previously.

Warrants swelled to 811.66 million shares worth RM76.89 million from 765.23 million shares worth RM73.5 million previously.

Consumer products accounted for63.1millionsharestradedonthe Main Market, industrial products ( 309.19 million), construction (76.47 million), trade and services (713.31 million), technology (69.37 million), infrastructure ( 9.43 million), SPAC (11.58 million), finance (92.02 million), hotels ( 239,500), properties ( 84.88 million), plantations ( 41.71 million), mining ( nil), REITs (13.46 million) and closed/fund (69,700).