Bursa Malaysia ends higher on better sentiment

KUALA LUMPUR: Bursa Malaysia ended higher today on better sentiment due to the Fitch Ratings' decision to upgrade the country’s credit rating from negative to stable yesterday, dealers said.
At 5pm, the FTSE Bursa Malaysia KLCI finished at 1,733.88, up by 5.92 points, after moving between 1,728.43 and 1,738.67 throughout the day.
A dealer told Bernama the market reacted to the Fitch Ratings' upgrade of the rating on Malaysia's outlook, and this helped the index to record double-digit gains yesterday.
He said the market, however, was still nervous over the Greece's debt crisis which was unlikely to be resolved before Sunday's referendum.
Maybank IB Research said beyond the near-term turbulence, there remained good reasons to continue positioning for the mid and longer term.
"Any broad market weakness is an opportunity to accumulate," it said.
Of the heavyweights, Maybank rose 12 sen to RM9.29, Kuala Lumpur Kepong climbed 56 sen to RM22.30, IOI Corp added eight sen to RM4.22 and Hong Leong increased 26 sen to RM13.68.
Market breadth was positive with gainers thumping losers by 388 to 351, with 334 counters unchanged, 727 untraded and 21 others were suspended.
Total volume firmed to 1.46 billion units worth RM1.85 billion from Wednesday's 1.94 billion units worth RM2.17 billion.
Among the top gainers, British American Tobacco advanced 88 sen to RM64, Chin Teck Plantations rose 58 sen to RM9.28 and Kuala Lumpur Kepong perked 56 sen to RM22.30.
On the scoreboard, the FBM Emas Index rose 35.11 points to 11,970.91, FBMT100 Index surged 34.57 points to 11,652.34, FBM Emas Syariah added 12.83 points to 12,442.68 and the FBM 70 jumped 19.05 points to 12,981.57
The FBM Ace contracted 45.45 points to 6,331.50.
On a sectoral basis, the Finance Index expanded by 90.60 points to 15,660.22, Plantation Index perked 109.98 points to 7,451.04 and the Industrial Index was higher 13.42 points to 3,209.58.
Main Market volume decreased to 895.17 million shares worth 1.67 billion from 1.07 billion shares worth RM1.95 billion on Wednesday.
Turnover on the ACE Market fell to 272.98 million units valued at RM96.21 million from 526.61 million units valued at RM147.90 million yesterday.
Warrants fell to 288.46 million shares worth RM79.24 million from 339.23 million shares worth RM77.85 million previously.
Consumer products accounted for 103.83 million shares traded on the Main Market, industrial products (1.97 billion), construction (55.15 million), trade and services (348.88 million), technology (37.66 million), infrastructure (29.87 million), SPAC (4.88 million), finance (44.28 million), hotels (616,200 million), properties (46.46 million), plantations (11.70 million), mining (110,900), REITs (13.73 million) and closed/fund (33,900).
The physical price of gold as at 5pm stood at RM137.10 per gramme, up 52 sen from RM136.58 at 5pm yesterday. – Bernama