Bursa Malaysia ends slightly higher
KUALA LUMPUR: Bursa Malaysia ended slightly higher today amid mixed trading on regional bourses, dealers said.
A dealer said the market was cautious and was traded within a tight range taking the cue from the flat overnight Wall Street.
At the close, the key FTSE Bursa Malaysia KLCI (FBM KLCI) was 1.36 points higher at 1,773.75 after moving between 1,771.60 and 1,774.61 throughout the day.
It opened 0.50 of a point better at 1,772.87 from Tuesday's close of 1,772.39.
Market breadth was positive with gainers outpacing losers 529 to 295 with 368 counters unchanged, 671 untraded and 46 others were suspended.
Volume fell to 1.72 billion units worth RM1.80 billion from 1.798 billion units worth RM1.795 billion yesterday.
The dealer said Asian shares were traded mixed today with the underlying sentiment remained cautious as investors digested earnings releases from regional corporates and a resurgent US dollar, following upbeat US retail sales data, which triggered expectations of another Federal Reserve rate increase by year-end.
"The impact of geopolitical tensions between the US and North Korea on the stock markets has also toned down resulting the investors to switched back to 'risk-on' mode," he said.
On the local front, heavyweight stocks stayed in range-bound trade in the absence of stronger local catalysts, to drive the momentum, he added.
Hong Kong's Hang Seng rose 0.37% to 27,276.52, South Korea's Kospi gained 0.60% to 2,348.26, Singapore Straits Times index fell 0.67% to 3,273.37 and Japan's Nikkei 225 slipped 0.12% to 19,729.28.
Among heavyweights, Tenaga added two sen to RM14.22 and Petronas Chemicals gained one sen to RM7.16.
Sime Darby fell eight sen to RM9.30 and CIMB Group eased one sen to RM6.77.
Maybank and Public Bank and were flat at RM9.69 and RM20.58 respectively.
Of the actives, Systech added four sen to 45.5 sen, Kronologi Malaysia improved three sen to 95 sen.
MLabs Systems warrant gained one sen to 7.0 sen while MLabs Systems was flat at 20.5 sen.
MTouche erased nine sen to 34.5 sen.
The FBM Emas Index was up 28.74 points at 12,598.06, FBM Emas Syariah Index rose 28.58 points to 12,731.32 and the FBMT 100 Index improved 22.86 points to 12,258.90.
The FBM 70 jumped 78.69 points to 14,930.91 and the FBM Ace surged 170.06 points to 6,589.34.
Sector-wise, the Finance Index increased 51.73 points to 16,762.78 and Plantation Index was 2.18 points better at 7,804.70.
The Industrial Index eased 5.52 points to 3,236.13.
The Main Market volume decreased to 959.33 million shares worth RM1.58 billion from 995.98 million shares worth RM1.62 billion on Tuesday.
Volume on the ACE Market rose to 504.47 million units valued at RM194.08 million from yesterday's 458.57 million units valued at RM136.09 million.
Warrants declined to 223.62 million shares worth RM23.98 million from 336.37 million shares worth RM42.78 million yesterday.
Consumer products accounted for 56.49 million shares traded on the Main Market, industrial products (258.27 million), construction (84.91 million), trade and services (296.47 million), technology (45.37 million), infrastructure (4.34 million), SPAC (541,000), finance (55.43 million), hotels (3.61 million), properties (122.69 million), plantations (26.43 million), mining (4,000), REITs (4.75 million) and closed/fund (38,000).
The physical price of gold as at 5pm stood at RM169.76 per gramme, down 58 sen from RM170.34 at 5pm yesterday. — Bernama