Genting lifts Bursa Malaysia to end 8 points higher

KUALA LUMPUR: Bursa Malaysia ended higher today with the key index closing at its intraday high for the second consecutive day, driven by gains in blue chip stocks led by the Genting group, dealers said.
Despite starting trading on an easier note, the benchmark FTSE Bursa Malaysia KLCI (FBM KLCI) ended at 1,737.66, up 8.09 points or 0.47%, from yesterday's close of 1,729.57.
The index opened 0.73 of-a-point lower at 1,728.84 and hit an intraday low of 1,725.95 on mild profit-taking before clawing back to end at its intraday high.
On the broader market, gainers outpaced losers 563 to 353, with 366 counters unchanged, 585 counters untraded and 40 others suspended.
Total volume rose to 2.51 billion shares worth RM2.58 billion from Tuesday's 2.15 billion shares worth RM2.33 billion.
Genting group contributed 5.072 points to the rise in the FBM KLCI. Genting Bhd rose 37 sen to RM9.08 while Genting Malaysia bagged 24 sen to RM5.64.
Among other heavyweights, top weighted Maybank was flat at RM9.25, Tenaga lost six sen to RM15.42, Public Bank gained 16 sen to RM20.36, while Petronas Chemicals advanced two sen to RM7.44.
Among actives, NETX was flat at 4.5 sen, PUC perked half-a-sen to 26 sen, Trive added one sen to 5.5 sen, while Hibiscus edged up 1.5 sen to 83 sen.
Hengyuan Refining led the list of top gainers, putting on 56 sen to RM12.46, while the top loser was United Plantations which fell 40 sen to RM28.00.
A dealer said Bursa Malaysia could still potentially trade higher on improved risk appetite on both the US and domestic equity markets.
"The bullish Wall Street factor, coupled with positive domestic sentiment, such as improving trade data, year-end window dressing and the possibility of a pre-election and Chinese New Year rallies, may prompt new buying interest in the local equity market," he added.
On the scoreboard, the FBM Emas Index rose 44.39 points to 12,469.84, the FBMT100 Index gained 43.83 points to 12,136.79, while the FBM Emas Syariah Index dipped 10.55 points to 12,843.04.
The FBM 70 bagged 10.43 points to 15,265.81, while the FBM Ace surged 109.98 points to 6,464.13.
On a sectoral basis, the Finance Index jumped 85.85 points to 16,268.85, the Industrial Index went up 5.72 points to 3,147.49 and the Plantation Index trimmed 12.14 points to 7,831.43.
Main Market volume swelled to 1.48 billion units worth RM2.41 billion from 1.34 billion units worth RM2.19 billion recorded on Tuesday.
Volume on the ACE Market rose to 833.93 million shares valued at RM136.13 million from 659.26 million shares valued at RM124.21 million.
Warrants volume improved to 173.58 million units worth RM23.78 million from 138.67 million units worth RM18.16 million recorded on Tuesday.
Consumer products accounted for 54.33 million shares traded on the Main Market, industrial products (282.98 million), construction (57.86 million), trade and services (638.18 million), technology (259.42 million), infrastructure (6.94 million), SPAC (3.69 million), finance (54.00 million), hotels (835,900), properties (93.21 million), plantations (28.92 million), mining (26,000), REITs (6.04 million), and closed/fund (0).
The physical price of gold as at 5pm stood at RM157.86 per gramme, up 23 sen from RM157.63 at 5pm yesterday. — Bernama