Last-minute buying interest pushes FBM KLCI up

KUALA LUMPUR: Last-minute buying, mostly seen in the finance counters, pushed up the FTSE Bursa Malaysia KLCI (FBM KLCI) to close at an intra-day high today.
At 5pm, the benchmark index stood at 1,768.16, up 6.08 points against Tuesday's close of 1,762.08. The index moved between 1,761.17 and 1,768.16 throughout today's trading.
Finance stocks, Hong Leong Bank and Allianz Malaysia, emerged as the top gainers, up by 56 sen each to RM16.30 and RM13.50, respectively.
Hong Leong, one of the heavyweight counters, contributed 2.07 points to the benchmark index, followed by IHH Healthcare, with 1.54 points, rising 11 sen to RM5.96.
Dealers said the local stock market was in red in the opening session before late buying interest pushed up the benchmark index to its highest level for the day, taking advantage from the recent weak performance.
Gainers outpaced losers 422 to 389, while 407 counters were unchanged, 565 untraded and 23 others suspended.
Volume fell to 1.48 billion units worth RM1.69 billion from 1.89 billion units worth RM1.80 billion yesterday.
Among actives, Asia Bioenergy fell 1.5 sen to 14.5 sen and IFCA lost half-a-sen to 40 sen.
Managepay gained 1.5 sen to 25 sen and Hiap Teck rose half-a-sen to 40 sen.
Of the heavyweights, Maybank improved one sen to RM9.66, TNB added two sen to RM14.12 and Public Bank rose four sen to RM20.34.
Sime Darby and CIMB were each flat at RM9.51 and RM6.5, respectively.
Petronas Chemicals eased three sen to RM7.11.
The FBM Emas Index fell 41.55 points to 12,588.54, FBM Ace eased 13.38 points to 6,522.55, FBMT 100 Index slipped 43.68 points to 12,221.36, FBM Emas Shariah Index plunged 51.50 points to 12,806.74 and the FBM 70 declined 46.22 points to 15,047.90.
On a sectoral basis, the Plantation Index eased 3.63 points to 7,905.77 while Finance Index improved 96.06 points to 16,863.17 and the Industrial Index rose 9.69 points to 3,262.16.
The Main Market turnover fell 962.97 million shares worth RM1.56 billion from 1.29 billion shares worth RM1.68 billion on Tuesday.
Warrants decreased to 121.38 million units valued at RM22.58 million from 149.39 million units valued at RM22.34 million.
Volume on the ACE Market eased to 394.02 million shares worth RM99.27 million from 443.19 million shares worth RM95.68 million previously.
Consumer products accounted for 68.19 million shares traded on the Main Market, industrial products (248.80 million), construction (83.36 million), trade and services (354.11 million), technology (38.75 million), infrastructure (7.91 million), SPAC (380,000), finance (57.93 million), hotels (230,800), properties (81.11 million), plantations (14.10 million), mining (15,300), REITs (8.05 million) and closed/fund (5,000).
The physical price of gold as at 5pm stood at RM163.37 per gramme, down 40 sen from RM163.77 at 5pm yesterday. — Bernama